This meat pie is the most prominent dish from the Greek island that my family hails from, Kefalonia. We are famous for it. It is the dish that appears at nearly every major celebration. And it is the special dish that holds an incredible amount of memories for all of us.
There are as many slight variations to this as there are families and villages on the island. Of course there is! Every cook will put in their special touch that can not easily be replicated, and it is made with love & reverence for the tradition.
This Kreatopita from Kefalonia is characteristically made with up to three different meats, fragrant with warm spices, and wine. The excess liquid is absorbed by the rice as it bakes in the oven.
I grew up eating Yiayia Anneta’s kreatopita. Her phyllo was extra special! As it baked, it formed these billowy curves along the top. My mother says that one of her secrets for that special flavor was a little rub of cinnamon across the surface. It gave it a richer color as well. All I know is that everyone at the table saved the top of the kreatopita for the end! We would eat the filling and the bottom and munch on the top all on its own.
She baked her kreatopita with only beef in it, while others have mixed goat with lamb, or pork with veal, lamb, pork, and beef, and so many other combinations!
The year that my yiayia died, we were going to spend the summer together and she would teach me some of her recipes that I hadn’t learned yet. As with many Greek women of her time, nothing was ever written down and recipes were passed down in the oral tradition and with practice.
And while my mother is a fabulous grill master, she does not make pies.
So this recipe is really what we learned from what my mother remembers, some recipes that I found online, and one of my brothers (from another set of parents), Chef Mike Giannakis.
I called him because my mother kept telling me that yiayia used to just toss the raw ingredients together and bake it right into the phyllo. All of the recipes that I saw on the web require cooking them first. I knew that he would know why this was!
As this was a celebratory dish, the villagers would slaughter a young lamb, or which animal of their choosing, the meat was extremely tender, and when cut into tiny pieces, it cooked very well within the pita.
You won’t find the same exact freshness in a city. So certain cuts of meat (like beef chuck for stew meat) will require precooking the filling so that the meat is very tender.
Even the traditionally used rice will be different. In Greece you use Greek Carolina rice. In the US, my yiayia and Mike’s aunt, could not find Greek Carolina and used Uncle Ben’s instead.
This recipe is for a 9×12 baking pan. You can very easily halve the recipe for a 8 inch pan or a ceramic pie dish.
Ingredients:
Phyllo Dough:
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/4 cup Tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3/4 cup warm water (plus more if needed)
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
Filling:
- 1 lb beef sirloin, cut into very small cubes
- 1/2 lb pork shoulder, cut into very small cubes
- 1/2 lb lamb, cut into very small cubes
- 1 cup rice
- 2 medium onions
- 4 grated tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- ½ cup grated Kefalotyri cheese
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2–cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup dry white or red wine
- 1 tsp oregano
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp all spice
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp clove
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 cups of water
Directions:
Phyllo Dough:
Mix the flour and salt.
Add the olive oil, wine, vinegar, and enough warm water to form a soft, smooth dough.
Knead for 10–15 minutes until elastic.
Cover and let rest for at least and hour.
Filling:
Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Brown the beef, pork, and lamb in batches. Do not mix the meat until you have cooked each one. That is because cooking time may be different for each. And pork might dry out quicker than the beef or lamb. Season each batch as you cook them. Remove the meat from the pot and set aside.
Deglaze with a little wine,
Add the onion, and garlic; sauté until softened.
Stir in the tomato paste. Add the meat back in, along with the grated tomato and water, and simmer until the meat is nearly tender and most of the liquid has reduced.
Stir in the rice, parsley, oregano, honey, spices, salt, and pepper.
Let the filling cool, then stir in the grated Kefalotyri. If you can’t find kefalotyri, Parmesan will do.
Once the kreatopita is filled and baking, the filling (including the rice) will continue to cook.
Divide the dough.
2/3 for the bottom & 1/3 for the top.
Roll out the bottom and press it into a well oiled pan.
Drizzle it with oil. It will create a barrier so that the bottom crust does not become soggy from the wet filling.
Roll out the second one and loosely cover the pita. Fold over the excess from the bottom and then together to seal.
You can prick just a few holes with a fork to let air out.
Brush some olive oil on top of the pita.
Optional: dust just a little bit of cinnamon on the top crust of the pie just like my yiayia did for an extra special touch.
Bake at 350 F for 60-70minutes, till the top is a rich golden brown.
Let it cool for 20-30 minutes and then slice into it.
Serve it with a refreshing Horiatiki Salata and tzatziki.
Kali Oreksi!
on xenia street 