Feta wrapped in Filo with Mavrodaphne Sauce

Greece Is | December 16th, 2015

The emblematic feta is paired with filo crust, pistachios and served with a sauce of honey, Mavrodaphne wine and Corinthian currants.

Greece IsAthensTasteRecipes

A taste of Greece in every bite.

Chef: Nena Ismyrnoglou

Preparation & Cooking time: 30'

Serves: 2

This recipe brings together some of the country’s most important ingredients; a taste of Greece in every bite. A slice of emblematic feta, mature and rich, is wrapped in a crispy filo crust. The sauce is made with sweet Mavrodaphne wine, the diva of Patras’ vineyard, and mountain honey, an elixir of nature, scented with thyme. It also contains Corinthian currants, Greece’s black caviar, once a driving force of the economy that helped build the country’s first railway network and which continues to be exported from Corinth all around the world. Last but not least, it includes a dash of mastic, the teardrop of a tree that grows only on the island of Chios. Ingredients that are typically produced only in small quantities, a synergy of man and nature, are cooked simply, without fancy techniques. The feta is wrapped and baked, while the sauce is simmered and stirred in a pan until it starts to thicken to a syrupy consistency: sweet embracing tart. The perfect meze to go with a glass of wine.

INGREDIENTS

For the feta:

400 gr feta, halved into slices of 200 gr each
3 sheets of filo pastry
1 tbsp Aegina pistachios, cleaned and roughly crushed
Olive oil for frying

For the sauce:

100 ml Mavrodaphne wine
200 ml dry white Agiorgitiko wine
2 tsp sweet Corinthian currants
2 tbsp thyme honey
2 drops mastic (mastiha) oil

INSTRUCTIONS

For the sauce: In a small saucepan, mix the two wines and reduce by half over medium-high heat. Add the honey and stir gently until the mixture thickens, which should take approximately 1 minute. Remove from heat, add currants and mastic oil, and set aside to cool.

For the feta: Cut one of the filo sheets in half horizontally. Lay out another sheet of filo on your work surface and place the half-sheet near the bottom end to reinforce the pocket. Place one of the slices of feta about 3 cm from the bottom end, on top of the two sheets, and fold into an envelope by bringing in the 3 cm fold, the sides and then flipping over until the feta is snuggly wrapped. Repeat with the remaining filo and feta.

In a frying pan large enough to fit both feta pockets, heat 1 cm of olive oil over medium-high heat and lightly fry for 2 minutes on the fold side and another 1 minute on the other side, until golden brown. Rest on a plate lined with paper towels for about a minute before serving with a generous dollop of sauce and a sprinkling of pistachio.