Ingredient
20 Greek Recipes with Phyllo Pastry
Phyllo means leaf. Everything from spanakopita to baklava rests on it, and the difference between good and bad phyllo cooking is almost entirely about fat and patience.
Phyllo means leaf. Everything from spanakopita to baklava rests on it, and the difference between good and bad phyllo cooking comes down to fat and patience.
Savoury pies first: spinach, cheese, leek, chicken, minced meat, wild greens, aubergine with feta. Epirus rolls its own phyllo by hand for its cheese pie.
Then the sweets. Baklava and galaktoboureko are soaked in syrup. Bougatsa is custard in crisp phyllo with no syrup at all. The apple pie is the same technique with fruit in it. Kataifi has two recipes here. None of it can be rushed.
Every recipe on Kalliopi's Kitchen carries the dish's Greek name and a pronunciation, its region where that is meaningful, ingredient quantities in both metric and imperial, and an honest note on what commonly goes wrong. Nutrition figures are calculated estimates and are labelled as such.
1. Spanakopita
Σπανακόπιτα · spah-nah-KOH-pee-tah
Pies are the centre of Greek home baking, and this is the one that left the country. Greens and cheese in quantity, almost nothing else, inside pastry thin enough to read through. Every sheet has to be brushed with fat. Dry phyllo fuses into one papery slab, and the separate leaves are the point.
Yiayia’s tip: Squeeze harder than you think necessary. If any liquid at all comes out when you press the filling in the bowl, go back and squeeze again. This one step decides the pie.
Make Spanakopita2. Baklava
Baklavas · Μπακλαβάς · bahk-lah-VAHS
The one everybody thinks they know. The Greek version is walnuts, not pistachios, with a heavy hand of cinnamon and clove and a syrup built on honey. Nothing in it is difficult. The layering takes as long as it takes, and the syrup decides whether you end up with crisp or soggy.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not stir the syrup once it boils. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup encourages crystallisation. Dissolve the sugar as it heats, then leave it alone.
Make Baklava3. Galaktoboureko
Γαλακτομπούρεκο · gha-lahk-toh-BOO-reh-koh
Baklava is more famous. This is the one that people raised on both ask for: a thick custard scented with lemon, shut inside phyllo, with cold syrup poured over the hot pie. Semolina sets the custard firm enough to cut clean. The phyllo is simpler than baklava, only two blocks of layers.
Yiayia’s tip: Rain the semolina, do not dump it. Adding it all at once guarantees lumps. A thin steady stream with constant whisking gives a smooth custard first time.
Make Galaktoboureko4. Tiropita
Τυρόπιτα · tee-ROH-pee-tah
The pie Greeks eat most, usually standing up, before ten in the morning, from a bakery window. With no spinach to hide behind, the cheese has to be right. Feta alone bakes dense, rubbery and too salty, so a soft mild cheese goes in with it: anthotyro, mizithra or ricotta, two parts feta to one.
Yiayia’s tip: Soak the feta if it is very salty. Twenty minutes in fresh water or milk before crumbling takes the edge off without losing the character of the cheese.
Make Tiropita5. Bougatsa
Μπουγάτσα · boo-GHAH-tsah
Thessaloniki's breakfast, eaten standing at a counter, cut into squares with scissors and passed across in paper. Refugees from Asia Minor brought it in the 1920s. People confuse it with galaktoboureko, which is firm and drenched in syrup. This one is softer and never sees syrup, only icing sugar and cinnamon.
Yiayia’s tip: Err on the loose side. The custard thickens as it cools and again in the oven. If it looks right in the pan it will be stodgy on the plate.
Make Bougatsa6. Thessaloniki Custard Triangles
Trigona Panoramatos · Τρίγωνα Πανοράματος · TREE-goh-nah pah-noh-RAH-mah-tos
Named for Panorama, the hillside suburb above Thessaloniki where a few patisseries made their name on it and people still cross the city for it. Phyllo cones are fried crisp, dipped for seconds in light syrup and filled with vanilla custard. Fill them close to serving. The shell goes soft inside an hour or two.
Yiayia’s tip: Chill the custard properly. It needs to be genuinely thick and cold before filling, or it will soak straight through the fried shell rather than sitting inside it.
Make Thessaloniki Custard Triangles7. Meat Pie in Phyllo
Kreatopita · Κρεατόπιτα · kreh-ah-TOH-pee-tah
The everyday mainland meat pie, as distinct from the regional ones such as Kefalonia's cinnamon-spiced version. Minced beef or pork is cooked with onion and herbs, then a little rice goes in to bind it, so the pie slices without spilling. A main course, not a snack, and it reheats well the next day.
Yiayia’s tip: Cool the filling completely before assembling. A hot filling makes the phyllo soggy and difficult to layer properly.
Make Meat Pie in Phyllo8. Apple Pie in Phyllo
Milopita · Μηλόπιτα · mee-LOH-pee-tah
Apple pie rebuilt on phyllo. Cinnamon-spiced apples sit between butter-brushed sheets, and the top shatters into shards where a Western pie has one solid crust. It is the spanakopita technique pointed at a sweet filling, and a good deal lighter than the pie you already know.
Yiayia’s tip: Cool the filling completely. A hot filling makes the phyllo soggy and difficult to layer properly.
Make Apple Pie in Phyllo9. Chicken Pie in Phyllo
Kotopita · Κοτόπιτα · koh-TOH-pee-tah
Shredded chicken in a light bechamel-style sauce, baked between sheets of phyllo. The sauce is what lets the pie slice cleanly instead of falling apart. Leek is the traditional partner, cooked down slowly until sweet, and gives the filling its depth. With a plain salad it is Sunday dinner.
Yiayia’s tip: Use leftover roast chicken. This is a genuinely good way to stretch a previous meal further, and it works just as well as freshly poached chicken.
Make Chicken Pie in Phyllo10. Wild Greens Pie
Hortopita · Χορτόπιτα · hor-TOH-pee-tah
Horta are the greens a household gathers from the hillside or grows in the garden: dandelion, chicory, nettle tops, chard, spinach. Crete and Epirus, both with a strong tradition of foraging, bake them into this pie. It is more bitter and more rustic than spanakopita. Without the egg and cheese it is vegan.
Yiayia’s tip: Use a genuine mix of greens. This is what gives hortopita its varied, rustic character. A single mild green alone gives something closer to plain spanakopita.
Make Wild Greens Pie11. Kataifi
Κανταΐφι · kan-dah-EE-fee
Baklava's logic with a different pastry. The nuts and syrup are the same idea, but the walnuts are rolled in fine shredded strands closer to vermicelli than to sheet phyllo, so it bakes crisp and threadlike where baklava is flaky. Cold syrup goes over the hot pastry. Give it several hours, or overnight, to soak through.
Yiayia’s tip: Let the pastry reach room temperature first. Cold kataifi pastry is brittle and harder to tease apart evenly. A short rest at room temperature makes it far more workable.
Make Kataifi12. Custard and Cream Kataifi Cake
Ekmek kataifi · Έκμεκ κανταΐφι · EHK-mek kan-dah-EE-fee
A dessert-shop cake, not an old village recipe. Shredded kataifi pastry soaked in syrup makes the base, with thick vanilla custard over it, then whipped cream and crushed pistachios. It starts from the same pastry as the kataifi roll and ends up closer to a gateau. It is eaten cold, in summer above all.
Yiayia’s tip: Let each layer set before adding the next. Rushing this gives a messy, unstable dessert that will not hold a clean slice. Patience between stages is genuinely worth it.
Make Custard and Cream Kataifi Cake13. Minced Meat Phyllo Triangles
Bourekakia me kima · Μπουρεκάκια με κιμά · boo-reh-KAH-kyah meh kee-MAH
The same flag fold as tiropitakia trigona, small triangles with meat where the cheese would be. The mince is cooked with onion and a little cinnamon, which should stay in the background as it does in moussaka and pastitsio. Fried or baked, either works. They freeze very well raw, so make a large batch.
Yiayia’s tip: Cook the filling completely dry. Any liquid left in the meat mixture steams the phyllo apart during cooking. Cook it until visibly dry before it goes near the pastry.
Make Minced Meat Phyllo Triangles14. Epirus Wild Greens Pie
Blatsaria · Μπλατσαριά · blah-tsah-RYAH
Epirus is pie country, and this is the plainest of its pies. There is no cheese and no egg, so it is a fasting pie and the greens carry it alone. Leek and spring onion supply the sweetness that dairy would have. The pastry is a simple oil and water dough, hand-rolled into two thin sheets.
Yiayia’s tip: Use far more greens than feels sensible. A kilo and a half of raw greens cooks down to very little. The commonest fault in a home-made greens pie is a filling too thin to taste of anything.
Make Epirus Wild Greens Pie15. Epirus Hand-Rolled Cheese Pie
Tyropita Ipirou · Τυρόπιτα Ηπείρου · tee-ROH-pee-tah ee-PEE-roo
No region of Greece is taken more seriously for its hand-made pies than Epirus. Its cheese pie reverses the usual ratio: two or three thick sheets around a deep filling of feta, egg and milk, nearer to baked custard than to crumbled cheese. Rest it fifteen minutes or it will not cut cleanly.
Yiayia’s tip: Layer several sheets thick to approximate hand-rolled phyllo. Genuine Epirus phyllo uses far fewer, thicker sheets than a standard pie. Stacking shop-bought sheets gets you closer to that structure.
Make Epirus Hand-Rolled Cheese Pie16. Leek Pie
Prasopita · Πρασόπιτα · prah-SOH-pee-tah
Spanakopita's winter cousin. Leeks are at their best in the cold months, when spinach is not, and they get the same treatment: bound with feta, egg and herbs inside layers of phyllo. It freezes well unbaked, so one can be built ahead for a winter weeknight.
Yiayia’s tip: Do not rush the leeks. A genuine fifteen to twenty minutes over low heat is what turns them soft and sweet. Undercooked leeks give the filling an unpleasant, sharp edge.
Make Leek Pie17. Cheese Triangle Pastries
Tiropitakia trigona · Τυροπιτάκια τρίγωνα · tee-roh-pee-TAH-kyah TREE-goh-nah
A full cheese pie scaled down for the party tray and the lunchbox, with the same feta and egg inside. The skill is the fold: a long strip of phyllo turned corner over corner into a triangle, like a paper flag. The first few take practice. They freeze raw and bake straight from frozen.
Yiayia’s tip: Keep unused phyllo covered. It dries out and cracks quickly once exposed to air. Work with a damp tea towel over the rest of the stack.
Make Cheese Triangle Pastries18. Spinach and Cheese Pie
Spanakotyropita · Σπανακοτυρόπιτα · spah-nah-koh-tee-ROH-pee-tah
At home, this is arguably the pie Greeks eat most, more than the all-spinach one people outside Greece picture. It has more cheese than spanakopita and far more spinach than tyropita, and it is its own dish, not either one in disguise. The cheese rounds the flavour and makes the filling more forgiving.
Yiayia’s tip: Squeeze the spinach properly dry. Any leftover water makes the filling wet and the finished pastry soggy. Work in batches and squeeze hard.
Make Spinach and Cheese Pie19. Aubergine and Feta Pie
Melitzanopita · Μελιτζανόπιτα · meh-leed-zah-NOH-pee-tah
A pie for late summer, when there is a glut of aubergines. Roasted aubergine takes the place spinach or leek usually has, bound with plenty of feta and egg. A rough mash eats better than a smooth puree. It keeps a few days in the fridge and is arguably better on the second.
Yiayia’s tip: Roast the aubergine fully. A properly long roast, until the whole aubergine has collapsed, is what develops the smoky depth this pie relies on.
Make Aubergine and Feta Pie20. Lamb and Cheese Baked in Parcels
Exohiko · Εξοχικό · eh-xoh-hee-KOH
The name means countryside style, and it began as hill food for an open fire: meat wrapped and buried in embers so nobody had to stand over it. Lamb or pork goes into phyllo or parchment with vegetables and plenty of melting cheese. Kleftiko follows the same idea in foil or a clay pot.
Yiayia’s tip: Seal the parcels tightly. This traps the steam that gently cooks the meat through and keeps it moist, exactly the point of the whole method.
Make Lamb and Cheese Baked in Parcels
Browse other ingredients
Get one proper Greek recipe a week
No round-ups, no filler, no fifteen-ingredient shortcuts. One dish, written out in full, with the reasoning included.
One email a week. Unsubscribe from any of them.