Dad's Italian Biscuits

I am not sure where my dad got this recipe - though it must have been from an Italian friend or recipe book. They were my mothers favourites. Every now and then she would get a craving for them and she'd turn to dad and say "Johnny, make me some Italian biscuits", and he would. As a child I didn't really appreciate the subtle sweetness of these - I'd make sure I grabbed the one most liberally doused with icing sugar. These days, I love the subtle vanilla and lemon flavour of them. OK, to be honest, I still love the icing sugar - just a dusting though, not a snowfall! My dad has slowed down as he has gotten older, and he has problems with one of his hands, so he does not cook as often as he used to. Dad's precious recipe book has been bequeathed to me. I've had it now since last Christmas. So when dad asked me last week, "have you made the Italian biscuits yet?", I knew what he meant. He's coming over tomorrow for lunch - and I have a lovely tin filled with Italian biscuits ready and waiting for him.

Dad's Italian Biscuits

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups self raising flour
60g butter or marg
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Sift flour, rub in the butter or margarine. Add sugar, mix well, Make a well in the centre and add the combined lemon rind, vanilla, egg, and milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until it is a soft, pliable dough.
2. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead gently until the dough is smooth.
3. Roll dough out gently until 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds. Place on a greased baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees C, for 15 minutes of until a light golden brown. Cool.
4. When cool dust with icing sugar and enjoy.

Spinach and Feta Pie

This is a great little pie to make when you have lots of green spinach or spinach-like plants in your garden (or at the farmers markets lol). I usually use english spinach, rather than silverbeet or chard, as it seems to have way less moisture. I also will throw in some of my perpetual spinach, and a few leaves of sorrell which give a lovely lemony acidity to counter-balance the saltiness of the feta. If you don't have sorrell squeezing half a lemon into the spinach-feta mix will do just as well.

It is lovely served hot out of the oven, but it is also very nice served cold with a salad - making it a nice dish to take to a picnic!

Ingredients

Filling
About 400g of spinach/perpetual spinach - chopped roughly
A few leaves of french sorrell or the juice of half a lemon
300g of green onions/spring onions - sliced
200g feta in small cubes
4 eggs beaten

Pastry
A pack of filo pastry
olive oil

Method
Preheat oven to 200C.

Mix the filling ingredients together. taste and season if necessary (usually only pepper, as the feta will salt the dish).

Take a sheet of filo and lay on your oiled baking dish. Brush lightly with olive oil, and lay one cross-ways across it. Continue layering the filo until you have about 14 sheets, brushing lightly with olive oil on every second sheet. Doing this in my square dish allows the filo to create a thin layer of pastry up the sides of the dish/pie and will then fold over the top a little. I then use extra filo to fill the gap. But if your dish is bigger or you don't want to have the pastry on the sides then feel free to trim away!

Fill the pie dish with the filling mixture, pressing down firmly. Top with 7-10 layers of filo sheets. Brush the top layer with olive oil.

Place in over and bake for about 50 minutes or until pastry is golden and crunchy. Serve with a green salad.