Leek and Feta Pie aka "Zelnik"

My friend Michele, whom I’ve known since I was 5, remembers eating this particular dish on my late sister Mary’s porch when we were teens.  Mary was an amazing cook and effortlessly made her own phyllo for this recipe.  (Check out Mary’s cherry cake recipe here, too.)  

This leek and feta pie is known as "zelnik" in my culture.  I love the word "zelnik" - sounds like a planet somewhere in another galaxy!

Michele had requested that I make this dish so she could try it at home herself.  Of course, I don’t expect you to make your own phyllo like Mary did!  There are lots of commercial varieties out there to make quicker work out of this delicious concoction.

There are not a lot of ingredients involved at all.  A warning, however…  If you are wary of using butter, this is likely not the recipe for you.  You can try using olive oil instead for a less saturated fat version or maybe 1/2 the butter along with 1/2 a cup of olive oil mixed together.

It is a bit time consuming to put it together (about half an hour), but I guarantee, the taste will make you feel it was totally worth it!

By the way, I completely lost my ingredients picture so had to put together a visual list for you in my not conventional way.

I can’t wait for you to try this and please,  let me know what you think!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 package phyllo pastry

1 cup butter

4 eggs

3 medium sized leeks

 
1 tub feta cheese (should equal to 1 to 1 1/2 cups crumbled)

  

1 tub full fat 4% cottage cheese (about 2 cups)

Watch the how to video for step by step instructions:

And here it is...

Crispy layers of buttered cruchy phyllo...

A filling of eggs, sauteed leeks and 

gooey feta and cottage cheese binding them together!

Tell me you haven't died and gone to heaven!

And Michele...

Remember to eat this on the porch and think of Mary :-)