The soft savory spinach pie belongs to those categories I like to call “dinner-saver” and “fridge-cleaner” — recipes that help when we have little time to spend at the stove or when we just don’t know what to cook, without sacrificing taste. This rustic savory pie, with a soft, moist texture, is delicious both warm and cold, perfect as an appetizer, for a snack or as a meal to take away. It’s a very easy recipe and can be customized each time by changing the vegetables, adding other ingredients, changing the shape, and so on.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 35 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter and Spring
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp potato starch
- 1 sachet baking powder (for savory pies)
- 3 medium eggs
- 1 tsp fine salt
- to taste black pepper
- 7 oz (about 6–7 cups raw) fresh spinach leaves
- 2 tbsp grated mixture of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano
- 1/3 cup (≈5 tbsp) vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 pinch granulated sugar
Tools
- 1 Baking pan 9.5 in.
- 1 Salad spinner
Preparation
Wash the spinach leaves and let them drain well, then chop them very finely with a knife.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks and beat the whites until stiff peaks form.
Preheat the oven to 356°F.
Sift the flour, potato starch and baking powder together and put them in a mixing bowl.
Also add all the other ingredients (chopped spinach, salt, ground pepper, yolks, oil, milk, the pinch of sugar and the grated cheeses).
Mix the ingredients very well with a wooden spoon.
Finally, incorporate the egg whites, little by little and gently, using a folding motion from the bottom up so as not to deflate them.
When the egg whites are completely incorporated, pour the batter into a pan lined with parchment paper.
Tap the pan gently on the table so the batter evens out, and bake on the middle rack in the preheated oven for about 20–25 minutes, depending on your oven (conventional or fan) and whether the heat is from both top and bottom.
In my case, with a gas oven in static mode and heat only from the bottom, the soft spinach savory pie took 25 minutes to bake perfectly. Remove it from the oven immediately to prevent residual heat from drying it out too much.
Before slicing the soft spinach savory pie, let it cool for about ten minutes.
Extra tip. Cut the savory pie in half and fill it with a savory spread or with cured meats and cheeses.
