BANICA - PIE WITH SPINACH AND RICOTTA CHEESE

Banica or banitsa is a form of pie, prepared in the Balkan countries. Macedonians also prepare this food very often and you can buy banitsa and smaller variations of it in every bakery shop. For saving time, you can use bought fillo sheets, just you need to sprinkle sheets with oil and water mixture before rolling. The filling is also optional, even a sweet variations can be prepared with pumpkin, apples etc.

Ingredients:

Dough
  • 1 kg soft flour
  • 100 ml oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • a few drops of vinegar
  • about 550 ml lukewarm water
Filling  
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 kg of ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 kg spinach
  • 2 packs sour cream (each 200 ml)

Preparation:


  1. Put oil in the flour and add 2 eggs, salt, a few drops of vinegar and knead well the dough with gradually adding the water. Vinegar is added to avoid cracking of the dough when stretching the crusts later.
  2. Coat kneaded dough with oil and wrap it in plastic bag. Let it "rest" in the refrigerator for one hour. Note: No yeast is added.
  3. In a meanwhile, mix ricotta cheese with the cream, add 3 eggs and mix well. Add salt if your ricotta isn't salted well.
  4. Fry washed spinach briefly in a pan until it softens.
  5. Divide dough in 6 pieces.
  6. On a floured surface, roll out a crust from each piece as thin as it can get, place a row of the ricotta cheese mixture and a row of spinach and wrap it in the form of a roll.
  7. Such pies are arranged side by side in a greased pan.
  8. Coat with an egg yolk, sprinkle a little water and oil and put to bake in preheated oven at 200 C (390 F) degrees for about half an hour.
  9. Serve with plain yogurt or sour milk. Enjoy!