Zagori Batter Pie with Feta (Alevropita)

Epirot cooks are famous for hand-rolling phyllo so thin you can read through it. Alevropita is what they make on the days they cannot face doing that. There is no pastry in it at all: a batter no thicker than pouring cream goes into a hot oiled tin, feta goes over the top, and the oven does the rest.

It comes from Zagori, the cluster of stone villages in the Pindos mountains, and the local name for the family is lazy pies. The description is fair and it is not an insult. Nobody in Zagori pretends alevropita is a substitute for a proper hand-rolled pita, and nobody stops making it either.

What comes out is genuinely unlike a standard cheese pie: crisp and lacy at the rim, custardy and popover-like in the middle, with salty pockets of melted feta all over the surface. It wants to be eaten within about twenty minutes of leaving the oven.

Key preparation steps

1. Whisk a thin batter of flour, water and salt.
2. Heat a well-oiled tin in the oven until the oil shimmers.
3. Pour in the batter and scatter over crumbled feta.
4. Bake hot until the edges are crisp and browned.

How thin should the batter be?

Like single cream, and thinner than you will instinctively want. Poured into the tin it should spread out on its own and settle to a depth of about half a centimetre without being pushed.

Thick batter gives you a bread rather than a pie: heavy, cakey and dull. If in doubt add another splash of water, since a batter slightly too thin still produces a good crisp result while one too thick cannot be rescued.

Why does the tin go in the oven empty first?

Because the batter needs to hit hot oil. Pouring it into a cold oiled tin gives a pale, slightly greasy base, while pouring it into oil that is already shimmering sets the underside instantly and starts the fried, crisp edge that makes the dish.

Give the tin ten minutes in the hot oven with the oil in it, and pour carefully when it comes out: the oil will be hot enough to spit. This one step is the difference between an alevropita and a flat savoury pancake.

Water or milk in the batter?

Both are made in Epirus and they give different pies. Water is the older and more common version and produces the crisper, lighter result with the lacier edge. Milk gives a softer, richer, more custardy centre and browns faster.

Half and half is a fair compromise and is what many Zagori households do. Whichever you choose, the feta is doing all the salting, so keep added salt in the batter to a small pinch.

What feta works best?

A firm barrel-aged sheep's milk feta, crumbled coarsely rather than grated. Coarse pieces stay in identifiable salty pockets, while fine crumbs dissolve into the batter and the pie loses its character.

Do not use a soft creamy feta-style cheese in brine, which releases water into a batter that has nowhere to put it. If your feta is very wet, drain it on kitchen paper for ten minutes before it goes on.

What matters in this dish