Spanakopita

Growing up, my mother's spanakopita was always one of my favorite dishes.  It always seemed special to me because it was often part of her menu for dinner parties.  She would bake it last and the smell of it would hug me tightly in our warm kitchen [insert pangs of nostalgia].  Layers of warm, flavorful, cheesy spinach with buttery, crunchy flakes of pastry.  Oh my, is there anything better?  I didn't have any Greek friends when I was young and I basically had nothing else to compare it to.  As a result, my mother's spanakopita became standard to which no other spanakopita could ever compare.   I will say, I've served Trader Joe's frozen spanakopita triangles at parties and they are pretty good, but I wanted a big pie of it, not cocktail sizes.  I never really order it at restaurants because I think I'll be disappointed.  I knew I must have had quite a hankering for it when I found myself ordering it while Zaytinya last week.  It was a decent little log, but a bit watery and nothing like my mother's.  I kind of wanted to tell Mike Isabella when he walked by our table that his isn't as good as my mom's.  I'm pretty sure I could imagine his response.  It wouldn't be nice.  Anyway, I figured it was about time I tried to make it myself.  I looked up a few recipes and most of them called for fresh spinach (which I'd imagine could result in it being watery).  I knew I used to see my mother use the frozen so I opted to follow her recipe instead.  It's a bit adapted.  

2 packets of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)
1 medium white onion, chopped
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
4 cloves garlic, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
salt, pepper 
dash of oregano
dash of nutmeg
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1 stick butter, melted
1 packet filo dough (two rolls)

Heat some oil in a large pan, sautee onion and then add garlic.  Add spinach and allow to cook for a minute, season with salt and pepper, nutmeg, oregano.  Add lemon juice.  Remove from heat and allow to cool for several minutes.  Meanwhile, break up egg yolks and combine this with the feta cheese.  Fold this into the spinach.  Beat egg whites with an electric beater.  You don't want beat it until it forms thick peaks, but until it turns into a white, frothy consistency.  Carefully fold this into the spinach.  Now for the assembly.  You'll need a pastry or silicone brush (I love Le Creuset's silicone brushes).  I used this rectangular casserole/lasagna dish (I think a 13 x 9 pan would work).  It was a bit smaller than the size of the filo dough so I cut a stack of them down with kitchen shears.  You you easily just fold it up the sizes - it does not need to be an exact science at all.  You can also assemble it as you want.  I used a roll plus several sheets from the second roll.  Next time I'll use more layers as the inside layers just disappear.  Place several down on the bottom of the dish, brush with melted butter, spread spinach evenly, add more layers, brush with butter, spread spinach, etc, etc.  I did three layers of spinach (with four layers of filo, about 4 sheets per layer) and then for the top layer of filo dough I added extra layers.  Brush the top layer with butter, and then score the pie into serving sizes.  I sprinkled the top with sea salt.  Bake at 350 for.....I can't remember how long, I think it was about 45 minutes but don't hold me to it.  Until golden brown.