This Is The Best Recipe For Passover Spinach Pie Or Passover Spanikopita!

Last year, our wonderful friends, the Slotnicks, invited us over for a Passover Seder.  I wanted to bring a main course dish that my daughter and her husband, who are both vegetarians, would enjoy.  My daughter loves the Greek dish called spanikopita or spinach pie, so I decided to create my own Passover version of it.  It turned out delicious!  And it only took about 30 minutes to prepare.  We’re getting very close to Passover, and I definitely plan to make this Passover spanikopita for Seder or just for a light dinner this year!

• about 6 matza boards
• 5 extra large or jumbo eggs (3 for filling, 2 for pouring over the top)
• 1-10 ounce box of frozen spinach, defrosted and drained well
• 8 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 of a medium onion, chopped finely
• about 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of dried dill or 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped dill
• about 2-3 tablespoons of butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing the pan

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease sides and bottom of  a 9 x 13 pyrex or ceramic baking dish well with butter or margarine. 

In a medium mixing bowl, gently mix the drained spinach with the crumbled feta, the chopped raw onion, 3 eggs the pepper, and the dill; set aside.  

Soak about 3 matzas in warm water in another 9 x 13 baking dish.  When the matza starts to soften, gently squeeze the water out, very carefully, so that you don’t crumble the matza.  Then place the matzas in the bottom of the pan to cover it.  Do not overlap the matza; just lay it side by side covering the bottom of the pan the way you would if you were making lasagna. 

Spread the entire spinach mixture evenly over the matza, covering the matza completely.  Then soak another 3 matzas in warm water, gently squeeze out excess water, and place the matza over the top of the spinach, covering the spinach completely.  Beat the remaining 2 eggs and pour over the matza.  Dot with butter or margarine.  Bake covered for about 30 minutes till hot and bubbly. 

Note #1:  You can prepare this in advance and refrigerate this up until the step where you pour the 2 beaten eggs over the matza.  Then when you wish to bake it, let it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes, pour the 2 beaten eggs over it, dot it with butter or margarine and bake covered, for about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. 

Note #2:  You may substitute 1 pound of fresh spinach for the frozen, but you will need to saute it (very briefly) in a little oil, butter or margarine, just until it wilts and turns a dark green before you mix it with the feta, egg, onion, pepper, and dill. I like to use the frozen spinach, because 1-16 ounce box of frozen spinach is equivalent to much more than 1 pound of fresh spinach.

This Baked Pasta With Vegetables Is Better Than Anything You Will Eat In A Restaurant! 

At least ten years ago, I had an absolutely delicious baked pasta dish at a great restaurant in Westfield, New Jersey called Ferrara’s.  The pasta was amazing, but I never saw it again on their menu.  I have been working on recreating that dish, and I finally have!  I made this for my daughter and her husband this week.  They are vegetarians and they enjoy pasta dishes that have lots of veggies.  They loved this as much as I did.  My daughter kept repeating, “This is so flavorful!” Her husband really liked it, too.   I recommend making this if you are in the mood for baked ziti, but you’re a little bored with it.  Please give this recipe a try.  It is truly delicious!

• 1 pound pasta -(I used Barilla’s campagnelle, which look like little trumpets.  This shape pasta is awesome!  If I couldn’t find campagnelle, I would substitute penne.)
• about 10 oz. of whole milk ricotta cheese (may substitute part-skim)
• 1/2 cup of freshly grated romano or parmigiana cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup of starchy pasta water (reserved from when you cook the pasta)
• 1 large, but not huge, red onion, quartered and thinly sliced (may use white or yellow onion)
• about 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 very large red bell pepper, seeded, quartered and thinly sliced into 1/4 inch slices
• 1- 10 ounce box of baby bella mushrooms, thinly sliced (may substitute white mushrooms)
• about 8 assorted black and green pitted olives, cut in halves or thirds - optional (I pick an assortment of marinated black and green olives with red pepper flakes, or garlic, or oregano from the olive bar at the supermarket)
• 1-28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
• about 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound of fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• crushed red pepper flakes
• dried oregano

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly oil a 9 x 13 rectangular or oval baking dish.   Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. 

Heat a large skillet over medium heat with the olive oil.  Add about 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, and stir.  After about 2 minutes, add the peppers, onions,  and the mushrooms.  Sprinkle with some kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Let them sit without turning so the mushrooms have a chance to brown.  Turn after about 4 minutes, and let sit for 1 or two minutes, then mix.  Cook another 2 or so minutes and add the garlic.  Mix and cook another 2-4 minutes.  Vegetables should be softened by this time.  Add the crushed tomatoes and reduce the flame to low.  Add a little more salt and pepper and stir with a wooden spoon.   Add the olives.   Let simmer for a few minutes uncovered, then cover the pan and keep on a low simmer. 

Start to boil the pasta, adding salt if you wish.  In a large mixing bowl, mix the ricotta cheese with the freshly grated romano cheese, the parsley, and a few grinds of freshly ground pepper, using a rubber spatula.  Then take about a half of a ladleful or 1/4 cup of the pasta water and mix it in with the ricotta cheese mixture.  The ricotta cheese mixture should become somewhat creamy.  Cook the pasta till al dente, drain it, and pour it into the bowl with the ricotta mixture.  Gently mix together using a rubber spatula. 

Pour the pasta into the prepared baking dish.  Ladle the tomato and vegetable sauce over the pasta.  Gently mix it with a spoon,  but don’t go crazy.  It should just be slightly mixed together.  You don’t want the ricotta cheese to just blend into the tomato sauce.  Top with the all the thinly sliced fresh mozzarella cheese.  Sprinkle lightly with more crushed red pepper flakes, and then sprinkle evenly with about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of oregano.

Bake for about 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  When the mozzarella cheese is starting to look really melty, change the setting on the oven to broil.  Watch very carefully and take out of the oven when the cheese starts to brown, after about 5-10 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Note#1:  Obviously, omit the olives if you don’t like them.  They add a definite taste to the dish, so you have to like them to use them!

Notes #2:  When I make this I often prepare it the day or night before I  will be serving it.  I do not slice or put the mozzarella on at this point.  The next day, I let the dish sit on the counter for about an hour.  I bake the dish at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes, covered with aluminum foil.  Then I take it out of the oven, uncover it, and put the sliced mozzarella on top, sprinkle it with some red pepper flakes and the oregano.  I put it back in the middle of the oven uncovered for about 10 minutes.  Then I change the setting on the oven to broil.  I  watch it as it broils for another 10 minutes or so just until the cheese started to brown.   

The Combination Of Flavors In This Easy Quiche Is Outstanding! 

I adapted this quiche recipe from a recipe I got years and years ago from my cousin Karen.  Besides being an excellent cook, my cousin is an amazing person.  She is a brilliant doctor with her own practice on Park Avenue in New York City.  She also has many other talents.  Number one, she is a devoted mother of her two amazing twin sons, Matthew and Douglas, and she is a loving daughter and sister.  Plus, she is an accomplished author, and she creates beautiful hand crafted jewelry.  I love spending time with my cousin Karen.  I just don’t get to do it enough!  Karen made this quiche years ago, and I loved it, so of course, I asked her for the recipe.  This quiche is so easy to make, so if you know how to boil water, I think you should try this!

• 1 deep dish frozen pie crust, such as Oronique
• 3 ounces French’s fried onion rings (1/2  of a 6 oz. can)
• 4 to 6 oz. grated or thinly sliced Swiss cheese
• 3 extra large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups half and half or light cream
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• a few grinds of freshly cracked black pepper
• 2 dashes cayenne pepper
• about 2/3 of a 10 oz. box of frozen spinach, defrosted and drained well

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prick frozen pie shell all around.  Then bake for about 10 minutes; set aside.  Then, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs with half and half or light cream. Add spices to taste.  On the bottom of the pie shell, place 1/2 half of the cheese to cover the bottom of the crust.  Then add the onion rings on top of the cheese.  Next add the spinach to complete the next layer.  Place the remaining cheese over the spinach.  Gently pour the egg and cream mixture over the top cheese layer.  Place the quiche on a half sheet pan and then put in center of oven. 

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until puffed and golden.  Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.  

Helpful Hint:  If you have an oven proof glass or ceramic pie plate, I recommend that you place the store made pie shell in  its tin right into your pie plate before you start the baking process.  This will give the quiche extra support, and if some of the custard leaks during the cooking, it will have somewhere to go.

Variation #1:  Instead of spinach, use 10 ounces of fresh sliced mushrooms, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper,  sauteed in 2 tablespoons of butter.

Variation #2:  Instead of frozen spinach, use 1 10 oz. bag of fresh, triple-washed baby spinach, seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper,sauteed in a pan in 2 tablespoons of butter just until it wilts for 1 or 2 minutes.   

Variation #3:  Use a combination of the sauteed fresh spinach and the sauteed fresh mushrooms.

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah has always been a wonderful holiday for me.  The special  childhood memories I have of Chanukah always include potato latkes.  When I was a little girl, I would, as usual, be in the kitchen when my mother was cooking.  I loved to stand right next to her as she made her latkes.  She used her mother’s (my Grandma Rose Hindes’s) delicous recipe.  My mother would make a batch of these, and then she would put them in the freezer for a dinner we’d have later in the week.  In other words, these latkes were not meant for immediate consumption.  As I stood next to my mother while she was frying the latkes, I prayed for these words to come out of my mother’s mouth- “Judy, you can have one.”  She always let me have at least one  (She would allow herself to take one too.) She also allowed me to pick off all the little crunchy browned bits around the edges of the latkes.  When I became a mother myself, I was so happy as the holiday of Chanukah approached because that meant it was time for me to start making my mother’s latke recipe.  I loved making them and calling my kids into the kitchen to tell them they could have some hot off the presses.  I also loved making lots and putting them in the freezer, just like my mother did.  There was nothing as gratifying, for me, as watching the expression on my children’s, my husband’s, or especially my mother’s or father’s faces as they put one of these incredible latkes in their mouths.  Please, understand that there is nothing hard about making these.  Once you get the hang of it, you will be making them by the dozens, too!

I usually double this recipe.

• 3 large sized Idaho or russet potatoes 
• 2 large eggs or 1 jumbo egg
• 1 medium to large onion
• 1/4 cup of matzo meal or 1/4 cup flour (you can use flour, but I think the texture and flavor are better if you use matzo meal)
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying (for the best taste, use corn oil)
• Sour cream and applesauce for serving

Peel and quarter the onion.  Then peel potatoes, and pat them dry with paper towels, and quarter them.  Crack egg or eggs into a blender.  Add a few pieces of one potato, and then blend it.  Then add the rest of the potatoes and the onion.  Blend on high until the mixture is the consistency of apple sauce.  The mixture should not be so pureed that it looks like liquid.  It needs to be lumpy.  But there should not be any whole pieces of potato or onion in it.  When the blender is full, dump the mixture out into a large mixing bowl.  If you are doubling the recipe, repeat and dump the mixture a second time into the large mixing bowl.  Then add the matzo meal or flour, the salt, and pepper.  Mix with a rubber spatula. 

Heat oil ,about 1/8 to 1/4 inch high, in large frying pan over a medium to high heat (I use both non-stick and regular).  Drop  spoonfuls of batter into oil, about the size of silver dollar pancakes.  You will be able to see when the latkes are really starting to brown.  Loosen them with a good, sharp spatula from the pan, and if they are really browned on the bottom, flip them over.  Then brown them on the other side.  As they are done, take them out and put them on paper towels to drain.  Flip them over on the paper towels to drain on the other side.  Eat immediately with applesauce or sour cream.  Or, you may freeze them once they have cooled. 

If you are heating up your frozen latkes,  take out as many as you wish right from the freezer, and put them into a preheated 375 to 400 degree oven on a sheet pan covered with aluminum foil, or a disposable cookie sheet with sides, and heat for about 15 minutes or until they are hot and bubbly. 

Note:  If I freeze them, I usually use an aluminum tin, and I make layers without overlapping the latkes, and I put a sheet of aluminum foil in between my layers.    

My friend Leslie made these carrots when she had company, and I really liked them.  I usually make this recipe for Thanksgiving dinner because my daughter Randi really loves it.  I haven’t changed Leslie’s recipe except that I have proportionally increased the quantity of each ingredient.  This dish looks pretty and tastes delicious. 

• 1 pound carrots                                 
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup orange juice, not from concentrate (You may use fresh squeezed)
• 2 pinches of granulated sugar

To make a larger quantity:

• 1 1/2 pounds of carrots
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/2  cups orange juice
• 3 pinches of granulated sugar

Peel carrots.  Then slice them on the bias or diagonal, about 1/4 inch thick.  Then put some water on the bottom of a saucepan, about 1/2 inch high.  Put a steamer insert in the pan.  Put the carrots in the steamer insert.  Put the top on the pan, and over a medium-high flame, steam the carrots until they are soft, but not mushy.  If you can put a fork into the carrots easily, they probably are done.  Set the carrots aside. 

Dump the water out of the pan.  Dry the pan with a paper towel.  Put the butter in, and melt it.  Then add the orange juice and the sugar. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the liquid starts to look less like liquid and more like syrup.  Take the pot off the stove, and add the carrots back in.  Toss the carrots in the sauce and serve.

Note:  You can definitely make these one or two days in advance, store them in a plastic container, and then warm them up in the microwave.  I love to go to my local deli and buy a bunch of plastic quart containers.  I use those containers for storing and freezing many items I cook. 

When I was a little girl, my father, my brother, and I  would visit his mother, my Grandma Fried, on the weekend.  My grandmother was a wonderful, wonderful person who had come over from Hungary sometime around 1910.  She was a good European cook, and I loved eating her foods.  Sometimes, she would make one of her specialties, her cucumber salad, and give my father a jar to bring home.  My mother and father loved these.  When I got married, I started making this recipe, because I knew how much my parents, but especially my father appreciated it.  I like to make this recipe instead of salad especially for a big holiday dinner .  People have so many different things to put on their plate, and it’s easy to squeeze some of these cucumbers on their plates.  This dish is refreshing and it’s nice for a change instead of salad. 

• 5-6 large cucumbers (the greenhouse cucumbers are best)
• Water
• Kosher salt
• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Peel and slice cucumbers very thinly and place in colander.  Sprinkle them with the Kosher salt and put a heavy plate directly over the cucumbers; press down.  Let sit for about an hour.  Rinse salt off with water, drain well.  Put in serving bowl.  Pour the vinegar and sugar over the cucumbers.  Refrigerate a few hours or overnight.  

Note:  You can make these a few days in advance.  The cucumbers shrink in size, so you will need more than you think.  Besides, they are great to go with holiday leftovers.    

I concocted this recipe a few Thanksgivings ago because my daughter Randi had told me that she had eaten some corn pudding in a restaurant, and she really liked it.  When I made this the first time, Randi said that is was her favorite side dish in the Thanksgiving dinner.  For something so yummy, it is really a snap to make. It takes about 10 minutes to get it in the oven.   I have prepared it, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a half hour to an hour before I baked it, and that doesn’t hurt it one bit.  You will be amazed at how beautiful this dish looks when it comes out of the oven, puffed and golden!  The consistency is more like a souffle than a pudding.  It does taste best if you can bake it right before you serve it, but you can prepare it, and put it in the refrigerator up to an hour or so before you bake it.  The result will be-perfection!  This dish will impress your guests, so get ready for the compliments and the recipe requests!

  For 8 x 10 rectangular or oval baking dish   For 9 x 13 rectangular or oval dish

• 3 tablespoons unbleached flour                       4 tablespoons unbleached flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder                              2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons Kosher salt                                    2 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• scant 1/4 cup granulated sugar                       scant 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 6 jumbo or extra large eggs                             7 jumbo or extra large eggs
• 16 ounces (2 cups) light cream                        18 ounces (2 cups + 2 oz. light cream)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine    2 tablespoons melted butter or marg.
• about 6 cups frozen corn - about 28 ounces   about 6 cups frozen corn-about 28 oz.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease sides and bottom of either your 8 x 10 inch. or 9 x 13 inch oval or rectangular ceramic or glass baking dish well with butter or margarine. 

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a small bowl.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together by hand the eggs, the light cream, and the 2 tablespoons melted margarine or butter.  Gradually whisk in the dry ingredients until pretty smooth.  Stir in the corn (which you can take right out of the freezer) and mix through, separating the kernels with the whisk as best as you can.  Pour mixture into prepared pan.  Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and puffed.  Serve immediately.