Bulgaria: Banitsa

More pastry and cheese.

I actually had to give half of this away to my friend (who was more than happy to take it) because my partner and I are so fed up of pastry and cheese. In fact, I write this blog post 4 days after making banitsa simply because I couldn't be bothered to write about how un-enthused I was about this.

It's sad because the banitsa was actually delicious. Flaky filo pastry, and the centre was perfectly soft from the feta and egg mix. But we're just bored. My friend who I gave the leftovers to was going to try and make it last over 2 days - but she ate both portions one after another because that's how delicious she thought it was. And she's not wrong! It was good! But I had to eat mine with a salad on the side just to have SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

But this is delicious. I encourage you to try it. I can't help it that I'm bored of my cooking (and lockdown and coronavirus) but if you're trying something new, this is a super easy, super delicious dish to make.

Banitsa
Makes 4 portions

Ingredients

• 1 pack filo pastry
• 1.5 cups feta cheese
• 2 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil mixed with 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and brush all sides of baking dish with oil.
2. Mix feta, milk, eggs, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Combine well.
3. Place a layer of filo pastry in the baking dish and brush some water and oil mix over it. Add another layer of pastry and repeat. Do this until you have 5 layers of pastry.
4. Pour enough of the milk mixture to cover the pastry. Then add 3 more layers of pastry, with the oil/water mix brushed between each.
5. Pour the remainder of the milk mix on top of the pastry, then cover with all remaining layers of pastry, brushing with oil/water mix between each layer.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes until the top layer is golden. Ensure banitsa is fully cooked by cutting into it - it is ready when the filling is no longer runny. 
7. Serve!