Albanian Pite

Dough:
1. Mix salt, water and 2 tablespoons oil together in a medium-sized bowl. Slowly add in flour until mixture forms a dough.
2. Knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until the dough becomes smooth, not sticky.
3. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let sit for 1/2 an hour. (Preferably in a warm place. I usually turn my oven on “warm” and let the bowl sit on the range during this time. It works like a charm!)

Butter Mixture:
1. Melt together 4 Tablespoons each of butter and olive on the stove over “low” then set aside until needed.

Putting it all together:
1. After dough has risen, place it on a floured surface.
2. Roll it with your hands into a snake-like shape (think kindergartners playing with clay!)
3. Cut off golf-ball sized pieces (I got about 28 out of my ‘snake’ of dough).
4. Form the pieces into balls by folding the edges of the dough inward. Flip over so the smooth side of the dough balls faces up.
5. With a rolling pin, flatten the dough balls into about 3-4″ circles/ovals (you want the dough as thin as possible).
6. Take each dough circle and individually stretch it out even further by hand (think pizza-making!).
7. As you stretch out each circle, you want to start stacking them on top of each other and sealing the edges of each together. In between each layer, brush on some of the butter mixture. So, it’ll go:

-Stretch one circle of dough, lay it on the table
-Brush on butter mixture (cover the entire surface)
-Stretch another circle of dough
-Lay the second circle on top of the first, and pull the edges of the second circle so it aligns with the first circle
-Press edges together so they fuse
-REPEAT

You’ll want to make three piles of these stacks of dough circles. One pile will have 5 layers; this will be your inner layer of the pie. The other two piles will be your bottom layer and top layer of the pie. These two stacks should have about an equal amount of dough layers – just split the remaining the dough circles in half after making your first stack of the ‘inner’ layer.

NOW you get to assemble the actual pie. Preheat your oven to 375F.

8. Brush a little of the butter mixture on the bottom of a 9×13″ baking sheet. Move your bottom layer of dough (stretch it further as you move it) and place on the baking sheet. Stretch the dough so it covers the bottom of the pan and pinch the edges of the dough directly to the pan so it sticks.
9. Squeeze the water from your spinach and then spread half of it evenly on the dough.
10. Sprinkle some feta evenly on top of the spinach. Amount is to your taste.
11. Drizzle a little of the butter mixture over the spinach and feta.
12. Repeat steps 8-11 with your thinner middle layer of dough and the remaining spinach and feta.
13. Place the top layer of dough on top and pinch the corners of the dough together so all edges of the pie are sealed.
14. Brush MORE butter on the top of the dough.
15. Place dough in oven and bake until the top is nice and brown (my oven took about 45 minutes for this, yours will probably be different!).
16. Slice and serve immediately. Leftovers are quite delicious too!