Easy Summer Zucchini Pies

It’s on again. Mid January in Melbourne brings soaring temperatures, and for those fortunate souls on holiday, lazy days inside watching the Australian Open tennis (one ball game I can tolerate) or reading a pile of novels. AND, of course, zucchini! When the pile of green zeppelin starts to stare me down, I force myself off the couch and into the kitchen, looking for more novel ways to cook this bountiful vegetable.  Small zucchini pies, or Kolokythopitakia, are a tasty useful alternative to the more common place Spanakopita ( Spinach and Fetta pie). The recipe is also a good way to use around 7 zucchini. Light and nutritious, they go well with salads. I stashed two in the freezer for next week’s heat wave. My recipe uses kefalograviera cheese, a nice change from fetta, and one I recommend you try in this recipe. You can use the remaining kefalograviera to make saganaki.

Kolokythopitakia. Zucchini summer pies, warm potato salad, grilled peppers.

Kolokythopitakia (Small Zucchini pies). This recipe makes four small pies of around 12 cm/ 5 inch diameter.

  • 700 g zucchini
  • 8 sheets filo ( fillo/phyllo) pastry ( I always seem to have this quantity left over in the fridge after making a big family pie)
  • 1 cup grated kefalograviera cheese
  • 1 cup mixed fresh herbs, finely chopped ( eg dill, mint, parsley)
  • 6 spring onions, finely sliced including most of the green
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • salt, pepper
  • butter or olive oil for brushing the filo leaves
  • sesame seeds

Method.

Preheat oven to 180c

  1. Grate the zucchini with a box grater or the largest hole of a food processor grating disc. Place in a colander, lightly salt and toss through. Cover the mixture with a small plate, weight with something heavy, then place in the sink or over a bowl to drain. After 30 minutes or so, squeeze out as much liquid as possible and add the zucchini to a large mixing bowl.
  2. Grate the kefalograviera on a large grater. Add it to the zucchini along with the chopped herbs, the chopped spring onion, and eggs. Mix well.
  3. Lay the 8 sheets of filo pastry on the bench and halve them. You want 16 pieces in all which will be shaped about 27 cm X 21 cms, almost a square shape. Stack them up and cover with a damp tea towel, especially if the day is hot and dry as they become brittle and tear easily.
  4. The pies need four filo sheets each and will be used for the base and the top. Using small pie tins with removable bases, radius 12 cm and height 3 cm, paint the insides with melted butter or oil. Lay one filo pastry sheet into the tin, centering the sheet so that the extra pastry hangs evenly around the outside. Paint this sheet with butter or oil then continue with 3 more sheets, making sure that you place the sheets in such a way so that the overhang lands in a different corner with each sheet.
  5. Repeat with remaining tins.
  6. Fill each pastry lined pie tin with the filling. Then bring the hanging pastry leaves over the pie filling, one corner at a time and paint each pastry sheet with melted butter or oil as you go. When complete, sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes at 180c. Leave for a few minutes before turning out.
  8. Serve with salads.
Profile of a zucchini pie
Summer pies

A few of my previous zucchini posts:

 

 

28 thoughts on “Easy Summer Zucchini Pies”

    1. I like this pie better than the spinach fetta version. Also, with zucchini abundance, after pickling and cooking, I hand them around…. can’t imagine a summer without them.

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  3. Wonderful looking pies and one I might even make prior to summer here. But, come July when your cool breezes are once again blowing and our Zuccinni is in abundance, this will be made.

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  8. Sadly no zucchini place up here, the weather isn’t being kind. Not enough bees I think to pollinate the flowers. I did try myself with brush but… I pickle every one I can lay my hands on. Those pies look delicious. No shortage of football size white cucumbers being thrust at us though. Why do people grow humongous veges then complain there’s a glut…

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  10. I always seem to read your posts first up in the morning … and strangely I become hungry. Of course my next thought is I must try this recipe which I shall 😀 .. Funny I can’t pronounce that cheese and won’t attempt to. I also suspect that it won’t be on sale in NZ .. can I use feta instead Miss F?

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    1. That cheese is pronounced phonetically so an easy one. Do you have a Greek community in auckland? That’s where you’ll find it. Kefalograviera is the cheese often used to make Saganaki, and is sometimes marketed that way. Yes you can use fetta. Kasseri, another Greek Cheese would also go well.

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  12. Pingback: My Summer Cookbook – ALMOST ITALIAN

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