Feta and Greens Pie

Preheat the oven 170°C (fan-forced). Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Using a sharp knife, remove the stems from the middle of the silverbeet leaves and set aside. Blanch silverbeet leaves in the boiling water for 1-2 minutes until bright green. Drain and rinse under cold water. When cool enough to handle, squeeze as much water as you can from the leaves. Roughly chop cooked silverbeet leaves and set aside.

Finely slice the silverbeet stems, finely dice the onion and finely chop or mince the garlic. Heat olive oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add silverbeet stems, onion and a pinch of salt and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring often until softened. Add garlic and dried oregano. Cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Pick and roughly chop the mint leaves. Finely chop the parsley, including the stems. Set herbs aside. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the lemon zest, ricotta, crumbled feta, salt, pepper, and mix well. Add the herbs, silverbeet leaves, and onion and stem mix, and gently stir to combine.

Brush the bottom of a rectangular pie dish (about 30cm x 20 cm) with olive oil. Take two sheets of filo pastry and lay them side by side in the pie dish to create one long layer. The sheets should overlap slightly in the middle to cover the entire base of the dish, and hang over the sides of the pie dish. Brush with olive oil. Add two more sheets in the opposite direction, and brush them with olive oil. Repeat, alternating the direction until there are 8 layers of oiled pastry.

Add the filling to the baking dish. Fold excess pastry over the filling, one layer at a time, brushing with olive oil in between each layer of filo pastry. Scrunch the remaining 2 filo sheets over the top, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sesame and fennel seeds, if using. Bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing for a cleaner cut.