The captious vegetarian

For Passover this year I wanted to make Peter Berley’s spinach mushroom vegan tart, but I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to make a kosher-for-Passover crust.  I did try making an almond, matzoh meal crust held together with butter, but it just turned to crumbly sand.  Instead, I ended up making this matzoh spanokopita (spanomatzikah? matzokopita?) recipe from Gourmet magazine for the main dish.  Although it’s certainly rich and cheesy, it doesn’t taste overwhelmingly rich.  I call it spanokopita, and although the flavors are similar, it would need significantly more feta and butter to deserve the name.  I simplified the recipe significantly, by using a stick blender instead of a stand blender and skipping the matzoh soaking and spinach squeezing steps.  Here is my modified version of the recipe:

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped dill, divided
• 1 (16-ounce) container cottage cheese
• 2 cups whole milk (1.5 cups may be plenty)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 6 ounces feta, crumbled (1 1/2 cups), divided
• 6 matzos (about 6 inches square)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.  Oil a 13- by 9- by 2-inch (3-quart shallow) baking dish
2. Chop the onion, then cook with the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add the cottage cheese, milk, eggs,  nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Use a stick blender to  purée until smooth. Add in 4 ounces of the crumbled feta.  Reserve 1.5 cups in a separate bowl.
4. When the onion is golden, add the spinach to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/3 cup dill, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.  Add the spinach mixture to the large bowl with the milk mixture.
5. Arrange 2  matzos side by side in the baking dish.  Break up matzohs to fill in any cracks.  Pour in half of the pinach filling. Cover with 2 more matzos, then pour in remaining filling. Put remaining 2 matzos on top and pour the reserved cottage-cheese mixture over them. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup feta.
6. Bake, uncovered, until golden and set, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then serve sprinkled with remaining 2 tablespoons dill.

Serves 8.

This recipe is relatively easy to make–just one skillet and a big bowl are required.  I didn’t time it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I could make it and clean up in under 30 minutes.  The lasagna held together very well when sliced (probably due to the eggs), and looked quite pretty on the plate.  I baked it ahead of time for the Passover seder, and then reheated it.  The topping became slightly hard and dried out, but otherwise it was very good.  The first time I made this, I only had about 1 cup of feta, so I didn’t put any on top.  Even without the melted cheese topping, I quite liked the recipe, and the top looked beautiful.  Both times I forgot to sprinkle dill on top after baking.  There are only a few more things that I might change about this recipe.  I might try reducing the amount of milk slightly, to 1.75 or 1.5 cups, since I’m not soaking the matzoh ahead of time. I might also try it sometime with lowfat milk, as I usually don’t have whole milk around, and had to buy it just for this recipe.  Finally, to simplify the recipe, it would be worth skipping the “reserve the milk mixture” step, and just pouring a bit of the spinach mixture on top of the final matzoh.

Rating: B+

Derek said this recipe is “very good, tasty, B+”.