Spinach and cheese pie

Friday night I enjoyed dinner with several friends from college. We had a delicious dinner of chicken with pesto and Mozzarella, a big salad, cheddar cheese bread, and I made a couple spinach pies to add to the dinner. 

I don’t know why, but these pies took about twice as long to bake as they usually do, and I was a little late as a result.  It turned out ok. The pies were well received and we had a great evening catching up, telling stories, and laughing. I had a couple of requests for the pie recipe, so here’s how I made them. 

This recipe is for one pie, but as long as you are making one, you might as well make two. For this pie, I find the store bought pie crust is perfect. It only goes on the bottom, and it isn’t really worth the effort to make just a bottom crust from scratch. Ok, I’m getting lazy in my advanced age. Let the pie crust come to room temperature before unrolling it.

Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust

3 tbs. butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 16 oz. bag of frozen chopped spinach

15 oz. Ricotta cheese

1/2 lb. shredded Mozzarella cheese

1 cup fresh grated Parmesan

1 cup of shredded sharp Italian Provolone - imported not domestic

3 large eggs beaten

Cajun seasoning

fresh ground pepper

Nutmeg for grating

Preparation

Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet. Add the chopped onion and stir until the onions have softened, around three minutes. Add the spinach, a light sprinkle of cajun seasoning, and a little fresh ground white pepper. Cook, stirring until the spinach is hot and any water has evaporated. Grate on some nutmeg. Set aside.

Take a large mixing bowl and add the Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan, and that good imported Provolone cheese.  Now add the eggs and the spinach mixture. Stir to mix well.

Place a pie crust into a pie plate. So people don’t think you are a slob, crimp the edges of the pie crust so it looks halfway decent. Add the spinach mixture and spread it out uniformly in the pie. Grate a little nutmeg over the top of the pie. 

Bake the pie at 350º for about forty minutes until the top is nicely browned. Or, at least that is how it usually goes. For some reason, Friday's pies took about an hour and a half, before they were fully cooked. When the top is risen a bit, and it is nicely browned, you can remove it from the oven. Let the pie sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Serving

We had this pie with chicken breasts cooked with pesto and Mozzarella, which was great, and I need to get the recipe. We also had a huge salad, bread and cheesecake for dessert. Oh, and lots of wine, beer and stories. Fun time!