Kalitsounia

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gplain flour
• 100 mlolive oil
• 100 mlraki or tsikoudia
• 150 mlwater
• 1 tspsalt
• 1 tspsugar

Sweet filling

• 600 gfresh mizithra
• 1egg
• 2 tbspsugar
• 1 tspcinnamon

Savoury filling

• 800 gwild greens
• 1onion
• olive oil
• 1 bunchfennel fronds
• salt

To finish

• 1egg, beaten
• honey
• sesame seeds
• cinnamon

Directions

1. Make the dough with the flour, olive oil, raki, water, salt and sugar, and knead it 10 minutes until smooth and soft.
2. Rest it 30 minutes under a cloth.
3. Use fresh mizithra, which is soft, mild and slightly sweet. For the savoury filling, wash the greens very thoroughly, blanch them briefly, squeeze them bone dry, then chop and fry them with the onion and fennel in olive oil.
4. Squeeze the greens dry in your fists until no more water comes. Any left in soaks the base and the pastry never crisps.
5. Roll the dough very thin, about 2 mm, and cut rounds of about 9 cm. Put a spoonful of filling in the centre of each.
6. Brush with beaten egg, keeping it off the cut rim of the sweet ones so the pleats stay distinct.
7. Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. Drizzle the sweet ones with honey and dust with cinnamon and sesame while still warm.

Technique

• Wild greens, horta, mean whatever is growing: dandelion, sorrel, chard, nettle, fennel fronds.
• Some are fried in oil rather than baked, which is the older method.
• They freeze well unbaked and go into the oven from frozen.

Substitutions

• Ricotta with a little feta in place of mizithra.
• Vodka or ouzo in place of raki.
• Spinach and chard if you cannot forage.

Variations

• Fried rather than baked.
• Sfakianopita, the Sfakia pan-fried cheese pie, a close relative.
• With mint through the cheese filling.

History

Made across Crete for Easter and name days, sweet with cheese and honey or savoury with hillside horta.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kalitsounia?

Kalitsounia is a bread & pastry from Greece: small Cretan pastries filled with mizithra cheese or wild greens. Made across Crete for Easter and name days, sweet with cheese and honey or savoury with hillside horta.

How long does Kalitsounia take to make?

Kalitsounia takes 45 min plus 30 min resting of preparation and 25 min of cooking. The recipe makes about 24. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Kalitsounia?

Yes, within limits. Ricotta with a little feta in place of mizithra. Vodka or ouzo in place of raki. Spinach and chard if you cannot forage.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kalitsounia?

Squeeze the greens dry in your fists until no more water comes. Any left in soaks the base and the pastry never crisps.