Spinach and Feta Phyllo Cups

Squeezing the spinach completely dry is crucial - wet spinach makes soggy filling. Feta should be well-crumbled for even distribution. Fresh dill is much better than dried here. The pine nuts add nice crunch but can be omitted for nut allergies.

These crispy little cups are a direct descendant of spanakopita, one of Greece's most beloved and historically layered dishes. The name breaks down simply: spanaki means spinach in Greek, and pita means pie — though neither of the two key ingredients, the phyllo dough and the spinach itself, were Greek in origin. The poet Philoxenos writing in the 5th century BCE describes cheese pies served at Greek banquets, and ancient Greeks made pies encasing wild greens and cheese in homemade dough — a practice the mountainous northwest region of Epirus has maintained unbroken into the present day through its tradition of hortopita (wild green pie). But the particular technique of rolling dough into paper-thin sheets — phyllo, from the Greek φύλλο meaning "leaf" — developed during the Byzantine era and shows clear influence from the Ottoman technique of yufka pastry, a similarly thin dough the Ottoman court chefs stretched into ever-finer layers, famously for baklava and börek. Turkey's ispanakli börek — a spinach-filled börek without cheese — is a direct parallel to spanakopita and reflects the shared culinary vocabulary of this region across centuries of cultural exchange. Spinach itself reached Greece from the East: as confirmed in Arabic agricultural treatises of the 10th and 11th centuries, spinach was a Persian crop that Arab traders and scholars carried westward across their trade routes into Andalusian Spain and then north into Europe. Combining Persian spinach with Byzantine phyllo technique and the briny sheep's milk feta of the Greek islands produced one of the Mediterranean world's most perfectly balanced flavour combinations. After Greek independence in the 19th century, spanakopita became a recognised national dish — today sold fresh from the oven every morning in Greek bakeries and recreated in miniature form at party tables worldwide.