Cooking with 'Friends': Mike Emanuel's Spanakopita

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Cooking with 'Friends': The Emanuel family's spanakopita

Mike Emanuel and his family prepare Greek dish

EMANUEL'S SPANAKOPITA
Ingredients:
2 bags of fresh spinach
1 bunch of dill
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of scallions, chopped
3 sticks butter
1 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
1 c. fontinella Cheese, grated
16 oz. cottage cheese
1 package filo dough, thawed and covered with a dish towel to keep moist
6 large eggs, beaten

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Steam cook the spinach, then make sure all liquid is removed from spinach. Wash and drain the dill and parsley. Then chop the spinach, dill and parsley.
In a large skillet, cook scallions in one stick of melted butter for 5 minutes.  Add the scallions to the chopped dill, parsley & spinach in a large bowl. 
With an electric mixer, cream together the cottage cheese, feta and fontinella cheeses with the eggs in a large bowl. Add the creamed mixture to the vegetable mixture and mix well. 
Melt 1-2 sticks of butter in a saucepan. Butter a 9”x13” baking dish. Brush butter onto filo dough one layer at a time and place 7 layers on the bottom of the baking dish. Put the spinach mixture on top of the 7 layers and then repeat the 7 layers buttered on top.
Press filo together to seal edges. Score the top layers of filo into rectangles with a knife. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.