Feta pastries, also known as tiropitas, are traditional Greek pastries made with feta cheese, eggs and filo (phyllo) pastry.
The feta is mixed with a milder cheese, such as cottage cheese, ricotta or anthotiro, which softens some of the piquancy and saltiness of the feta without overshadowing its distinctive flavour.
The cheese is then combined with eggs (to help the filling set) and a pinch of black pepper and then folded inside strips of filo pastry to create beautiful little triangular parcels.
The philo in Greek tiropita is then brushed with butter or sprayed with olive oil, as in this recipe, and baked until you have beautifully crisp parcels.
I like quite a thin layer of filo on my feta pastries, so I make six per filo sheet but if you'd like a more generous, crunchy set of filo layers to each pastry, simply use a full length strip of filo for each triangular parcel.
These delicious feta pastries are great served warm or cold, so why not make them to pop in your lunchbox, take on your next picnic, or serve as part of your next mezze-style meal?
Here's the full recipe for my feta pastries with lots of pics so you can see exactly how I make mine.
Ingredients
- 2 medium free range eggs
- 200 g (7.1 oz) Greek feta cheese
- 200 g (7.1 oz) ricotta cheese
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil to spray or brush
- 2 sheets (2) filo pastry
Equipment
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C
In a bowl, lightly whisk two eggs.
Add the feta, ricotta and pepper. You can add a tiny pinch of salt if you like but remember that the feta is naturally very salty, so it doesn't really need it.
Mix with a fork, mashing to break down any large pieces.
Lay a sheet of filo pastry on a piece of baking paper. Keep the rest of the pack wrapped so that it doesn't dry out.
With the filo sheet positioned vertically to you, cut into threes vertically and in half horizontally to give six strips, then put a spoonful of mixture at the bottom of each strip.
Note: I like quite a thin layer of filo on my feta pastries, so I make six per filo sheet but if you'd like a more generous, crunchy set of filo layers to each pastry, simply use a full length strip of filo for each triangular parcel, rather than cutting in half horizontally. Like this. The method is otherwise the same.
Fold the corner of a strip up to create a triangle over the top of the mixture. Keep flipping the triangle over, moving up the strip.
When you get to the end of the strip, dab with a little olive oil to help seal and leave seam-side down on the baking paper.
Repeat until you have 6 triangular parcels.
Spray or brush the pastries sparingly with olive oil.
Repeat with the second sheet of filo to use up the rest of the filling. Slide the papers onto two baking trays.
Bake your 12 feta pasties for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown.
Serve on their own as a snack or appetiser or for lunch with salad or as part of mezze spread.
These feta pastries are great hot or cold so they're perfect to take on your next picnic.
Enjoy.
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Feta Pastries (Tiropita)
Ingredients
- 2 medium free range eggs
- 200 g (7.1 oz) Greek feta cheese
- 200 g (7.1 oz) ricotta cheese
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil to spray or brush
- 2 sheets (2) filo pastry
Equipment
- Large nonstick baking tray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C
- In a bowl, lightly whisk two eggs.
- Add the feta, ricotta salt and pepper and mix with a fork, mashing to break down any large pieces.
- Lay a sheet of filo pastry on a piece of baking paper. Keep the rest of the pack wrapped so that it doesn't dry out.
- With the filo sheet positioned vertically to you, cut into threes vertically and in half horizontally to give six strips, then put a spoonful of mixture at the bottom of each strip.
- Fold the corner of a strip up to create a triangle over the top of the mixture. Keep flipping the triangle over, moving up the strip. When you get to the end of the strip, dab with a little olive oil to help seal and leave seam-side down on the baking paper.
- Repeat until you have 6 triangular parcels.
- Spray or brush the pastries sparingly with olive oil.
- Repeat with the second sheet of filo to use up the rest of the filling. Slide the papers onto two baking trays.
- Bake your 12 feta pasties for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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