Traditional trahana and Feta cheese pie

A delicious traditional cheese pie to have as a light meal along with a green salad, as a snack, to take with you at a picnic or even to serve as a first dish. The trahana, this nutritious and delicious staple of the Greek cuisine, makes the difference in taste and the spearmint gives extra aroma. In this recipe the "sweet" variety of trahana is used (as opposed to "sour")

Recipe of Vicky Smyrli,

from a recipe leaflet of the Greek supermarket "AB Vassilopoulos"

Ingredients (for 4-6 people):
450-500gr. of phyllo pastry sheets
2 tea-cups of sweet trahana
1Lt of fresh milk
6-7 eggs
1 ½ tea-cup of Feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp of finely chopped fresh spearmint
salt
pepper
olive oil for brushing

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180-200ºC.

The night before soak the trahana in a large bowl with the milk and the next day just before you start the pie drain in a colander.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and mix with the spearmint, the feta cheese, the drained trahana, a bit of salt and pepper.

Brush thoroughly with olive oil the bottom and the sides of an oven pan. Brush half of the phyllo sheets with oil (each one separately) and lay them in the pan (one on top of the other), allowing some of the pastry to hang over the rim.

Empty the cheese filling in the pan, evenly spread with a spatula and bring the hanging pastry over the filling. Cover on top with the rest of the phyllo sheets, again brushing each one with some oil and push the edges inwards all around so to seal the filling.

Using a sharp knife gently score the surface of the pie into pieces and brush the top phyllo with some oil. Put in the oven and bake for about 1 hour depending on the oven.

Take the pie out of the oven and allow to settle for 10-15 minutes before you cut through the pieces and serve.