Melitzanopita (Greek Pie Using Eggplant (Aubergine) )

"I was craving a savoury pita (Greek word for 'pie) and had some nice Japanese eggplant and decided to wing this recipe. I lucked out, cause it made a tremendous pie! Note: 'pita' in Greek not only means pie, it also means flat. Traditionally, a Greek pita will not be more than about 1 1/2 inches thick. This recipe will make 16 snack or appetizer servings or 8 servings, serving 2 pieces per person, as a main course."
 
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photo by Irmgard photo by Irmgard
photo by Irmgard
Ready In:
1hr 40mins
Ingredients:
15
Serves:
16
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ingredients

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directions

  • In a large saucepan over medium heat, sauté eggplant and onion, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is soft and has become almost a puree, about 20 minutes.
  • Add bacon or ham, tomato paste and salt and pepper (careful with the salt - it may not seem like a lot but the bacon and the cheese, that will be added later will add a lot more), and cook another 5 minutes. You may have a dark brown film on the bottom of your skillet (I do not use non-stick surfaces - only stainless steel). You will find that this scrapes up easily once you turn off the heat and the eggplant puree starts to cool. Do scrape it back into the puree with a spoon as this is highly-flavoured and helps the overall taste (if it doesn't scrape easily in the beginning, just wait a couple of minutes longer). Allow to cool.
  • Note: The eggplant puree can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing with recipe.
  • In a large bowl, combine well eggplant puree, feta, eggs, parsley and mint. Taste a small amount of the filling to decide if you would like it a bit saltier.
  • Preheat oven to 390°F.
  • Butter bottom and sides of a 15 X 11 inch baking pan. Stagger sheets of phyllo in pan, brushing each sheet with olive oil as you position it in the pan.
  • When you have used half the sheets of phyllo pastry, empty the filling into the pan and spread it out evenly.
  • Continue staggering the remaining sheets of phyllo over top, brushing each one with olive oil as you position it in the pan. Tuck in any overhang you have and give a last generous brushing of olive oil to the whole pie.
  • With a sharp knife, score the pie lengthwise into 4 strips, and then score into 4 strips crosswise (resulting in 16 pieces of pie). DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH PHYLLO - JUST THE TOP LAYERS.
  • Generously sprinkle the pie with some tap water using your fingertips (run your hand under the tap and sprinkle the water over the pie - do about 5 of these sprinkles - this results in a crisper, crunchier crust).
  • Brush pie with egg wash and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Bake for 1 hour, or until pie is a golden-brown. You may need to reverse pan back to front midway through baking.
  • Allow to cool 15-20 minutes before cutting into. Personally, I like this pie just warm or at room temperature.
  • Enjoy.

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Reviews

  1. This was my first attempt at making a Greek pita and it came out perfect. I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't change a thing.
     
  2. Wonderful, our only adjustment was 1/2 jalepeno for a little kick. My 5yo even loved it!
     
  3. We followed this recipe pretty closely and it came out great. Our one major deviation was that, when I opened the drawer in the fridge to pull out what I thought was parsley, it turned out to be pea vine sprouts! We used the sprouts, and the result was fine. But we will have to make it again to see how the parsley changes it. And do go easy on the salt; next time I'll probably just leave out the 1/2 tsp recommended, and likely use a bit less oil too.
     
  4. I made half this recipe as you suggested for just 2 of us. It was tough not to add garlic, but I resisted so as not to mask the mint component. I used puff pastry instead of phyllo, so I amended the prep as needed, elminated the sesame seeds & was faithful to the recipe otherwise. It was served w/leftover leg of lamb & I found myself musing that it would also be very good as a 1-dish main course casserole using grd lamb. This is an excellent dish, Ev, & will grace our table often. Thx for posting.
     
  5. Another wonderful pita! As usual, I used less olive oil than Evelyn. I also skipped the sesame seeds and the egg wash. But everything else combined to make a fabulous pie. The balance of the parsley and mint-so that the mint was not obvious at all--just a wonderful understated presence--was brilliant! One more to go into the permanent collection. Thanks, Ev!
     
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Tweaks

  1. I made half this recipe as you suggested for just 2 of us. It was tough not to add garlic, but I resisted so as not to mask the mint component. I used puff pastry instead of phyllo, so I amended the prep as needed, elminated the sesame seeds & was faithful to the recipe otherwise. It was served w/leftover leg of lamb & I found myself musing that it would also be very good as a 1-dish main course casserole using grd lamb. This is an excellent dish, Ev, & will grace our table often. Thx for posting.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<style>body { background: url("http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3512121819_f2f1aaf050.jpg?v=0"); background-repeat: repeat-y; }</style> OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages! I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure. So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call. What did I do wrong? Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths. I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time. That's all for now.
 
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