Country-style layered cheese pie with semolina - A tradition to celebrate the last Weekend of the Carnival period before Lent starts

It's this time of the year again! Not only Spring has unofficially started but we (the Greeks) get to the Lent period tomorrow. The tradition has it every year on the last Sunday of the Carnival period to "clean up" every dairy product our fridge might have before we start fasting on "Clean Monday" which is tomorrow. Usually a pie is the star of the day in most households, among other non-fasting dishes, but often just a luscious and rich cheese pie along with a salad is more than enough as a main meal. Today's recipe is one that I wanted to make since I first discovered it sometime ago because I thought that differs to other country-style versions and I was very curious about it. My mother, though, told me that this is not an uncommon type of cheese pie and she seems to remember that her mother used to add semolina in the filling so to absorb the moisture of the cheese and of course the phyllo pastry back then was always homemade. So, I had decided days ago that this year I would cook this pie for this special Sunday and I couldn't wait! As you'll see there is nothing fancy about it regarding the ingredients or the method except the semolina's presence. The only thing maybe that makes it so special and tasty is the good quality of the cheese and especially the good quality of butter used and I don't mean margarine. As I'm not so experienced in homemade phyllo making I thought better not to risk it so I used commercial thick phyllo sheets instead. If you can't find this variety and you can't make your own then the classic thin phyllo pastry sheets is the alternative. The pie is cooked, tried out already (just a piece before dinner so to check it out:-)) and it is really very tasty and luscious! It does give you this special country-style flavour which I really love and the filling worked just fine with the semolina. Give it a try when you have the chance, you won't regret it!

Recipe from "Cook Book" magazine of "ETHNOS" newspaper

Ingredients (for 6-8 people):
1 packet of thick phyllo pastry sheets (6-8 sheets, depending on the company)

500 gr. of good quality Feta cheese, roughly crumbled

3-4 tbsp of coarse semolina flour

8 eggs, beaten

250 gr. of good quality butter, melted

black pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush with butter the bottom and the sides of a medium-large round oven pan.

Put in a bowl the cheese, the beaten eggs, season with pepper and sprinkle with the semolina. Mix the ingredients with a spoon.

Lay the first phyllo sheet at the bottom of the pan and brush with some butter. Using a ladle pour some of the cheese/egg mixture over the phyllo. Cover with the second sheet, brush with butter and again pour over with some of the filling.

Continue in the same way in layers until all the sheets and the filling are used. Using a sharp knife gently score the top phyllo of the pie without cutting through. Brush the pie with the rest of the butter and drizzle the surface with a bit of water.

Put the pan in the middle shelf of the oven and bake the pie for 1 hour until the phyllo gets a golden colour and becomes nicely crunchy.

Take the pie out of the oven, allow to rest for a few minutes and then cut into pieces and serve while it is still hot.