Greek Makaronopita (Pasta Pie)

This pie is a speciality of the  Agrinio  region, which is towards the north west of the Greek mainland. The pasta that is used is the same as that used for Pastichio. Here, this is No.10, but if in doubt, it's the long, thick pasta with a hole along the centre.

A word of thanks here to our good friend Nitsa Daniil, from Agrinio, who kindly shared the recipe with us! 

Ingredients

For the pastry
500g hard flour
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vinegar
100g melted butter & 100g olive oil mixed together (to brush on the pastry)
Enough water to make your dough.

For the filling
1 packet pasta for pastichio (this is usually no.10)
500g hard feta cheese
5 eggs
300 ml milk
100g butter
Salt & pepper to taste


Preparation

Make a dough with the pastry ingredients (apart from the butter/oil mixture).

Split the dough into 2 balls – the one slightly larger then the other.

Cover them in cling film and set aside for 1 hour at room temperature, to rest.

After the 1 hour, roll out one of the balls very thinly and then brush it with the butter/oil mixture. Fold once and brush again. Fold again and brush and keep doing this until the dough is approx. 20cm by 20cm.

Repeat for the other ball of dough.

Wrap them both in cling film and place in the fridge for 1 hour.

While the dough is in the fridge, you can prepare the filling. Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water.

Lightly beat the eggs in a mixing bowl.

Add the milk, crumble the feta and add, along with the salt and pepper and mix.

Drain the pasta when it is ready, put it back in tha pan and add the butter.

Add the egg mixture to the pasta and stir.

After you remove the balls of dough from the fridge, take the larger one first and roll it out so that it can cover the bottom and sides of the oven dish (approx. 40cm diameter, 6cm deep) and also goes slightly over the top edge.

Put the pasta mixture in the oven dish on top of the pastry.

Roll out the smaller ball of dough to the circumference of the oven dish and place it on top.

Brush the pastry that has gone over the edge with the butter/oil mixture and then roll it over so that the edge at the top is sealed all the way round.

Brush the top of the pie with the remaining butter/oil mixture.

Score the top of the pie into portions (don’t cut right through).

Cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.

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