Why it works: Cottage cheese and butter work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓
Pita Di Spinaku
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Prepare spinach according to package. Strain and let cool.
Combine cheese, eggs, 1 tablespoon of the melted butter and a dash of salt. Set aside.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, sift 4 1/2 cups flour.
Add 2 teaspoons salt and mix with a fork.
Slowly add the water and work dough with fingertips to form a soft, smooth, elastic ball.
Knead for 10 minutes, adding more sifted flour or water if needed. Do not let the dough get tough. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
Split dough in half to form 2 pieces.
Layer the dough
Roll one piece of dough until thin and the size of the shallow rectangular pan you will use for the pie (approx. 14"L x 12"W x 1"D).
Spread the dough with some of the melted butter.
With a knife, draw a small circle in the center and cut from the outside of the circle to form a "sun" pattern with 8 cut sections.
Turn one piece over onto the circle and butter the top of that section.
Repeat the same procedure with each section, layering them on top of each other, but leave the 8th section unbuttered.
Refrigerate.
Repeat the same procedure with the second piece of dough.
Refrigerate as well.
Assemble and bake
Remove 1st chilled piece of dough.
Sprinkle with flour and roll out until dough is one inch bigger than the pan.
Place rolled out dough in buttered pan.
Add spinach filling and spread.
Roll out 2nd chilled piece of dough so that it overlaps at least one inch on all sides of the pan.
Place over spinach filling and tuck edges into side of pan to form a thick crust.
Brush top with remaining melted butter.
Bake at 450°F for 15 minutes.
Lower heat to 400°F and bake for 15 minutes longer, or until golden and crispy.
Remove from oven.
Cut into squares.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Cheese | 1 oz (28g) cheddar | 113 |
| Feta Cheese | 1 oz (28g) cheddar | 113 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cottage Cheese | 1/2 cup (113g) 2% | 98 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Spinach | 1 cup raw (30g) | 7 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Cottage cheese + buttertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together376 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
-
Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Spinach + cottage cheesetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together106 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + cottage cheesetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together601 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the cheese and spinach filling so it sets firm when baked.
- Unbleached flour
- Forms the gluten structure that makes the dough soft, smooth and elastic.
- Butter
- Layered between dough sheets to separate them and crisp the pastry as it bakes.
- Cottage cheese, farmer cheese, or greek feta cheese
- Provides moisture and tangy, salty flavor to the spinach filling.
- Frozen spinach
- Supplies the main filling bulk and green flavor once cooled and drained.
The step that matters
Knead the dough without overworking it. Kneading develops gluten for elasticity, but overworking makes the dough tough. Resting it for 15 minutes relaxes the gluten so the sheets roll thin without tearing.
Swap the spinach
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cottage cheese, flour, butter):
- Chivefits better
- Spinachthe original
- Welsh onionfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cottage cheese, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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