Plastos pie - Greek cornmeal pie in the wood fired oven

“Plastos” is an old, traditional recipe made mainly in Thessaly, Greece. It’s made with cornmeal, which abounds in the Thessalian Plain, greens, and, of course, with feta cheese, plenty of butter and olive oil. It’s an easy-to-make recipe, such as zucchini pie “Mpatzina”. “Mpatzina” was usually a summer recipe, also made during fall, while “Plastos” was made during fall, winter and spring, when there were plenty of greens. They both belong to our favorite pies that we still make. “Plastos” has high nutritional value and it’s a simple recipe. Let’s see step-by-step how to make “Plastos” from Thessaly.

INGREDIENTS

For a 40-cm-diameter baking tray:

500g cornmeal
200ml extra virgin olive oil (120ml for the greens)
80g cow milk butter
1kg greens (spinach, sorrel, chard, leek, nettle)
Water
1tsp salt

PREPARATION

Grease a large clay baking tray using plenty of butter. Then, make a layer of cornmeal on top of the butter. Drizzle a little salted water and olive oil over the cornmeal layer. Continue with one more layer of cornmeal, and drizzle salted water and olive oil again. Make three layers of cornmeal in total. Place the greens in a large pan, after rinsing well and finely chopping them. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and press them with your hands to wilt them and reduce their volume. Add feta cheese, 120 ml extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Then, spread the greens mixture carefully on top of the cornmeal base. Press them well, so that there aren’t any pieces sticking out.

On top of the chopped greens, add the same number of cornmeal layers, as you did in the beginning, to cover them. Drizzle water, and a little olive oil, and add the rest of the butter in small pieces on top. Our pie is ready to go into the oven.

COOKED ON Indirect wood-fired oven

COOKING

Before preparing the pie, preheat the traditional wood-fired oven. Place kindling along with thin pieces of dry hardwood in the oven’s chamber and add thicker pieces of dry hardwood on top. Prefer oak wood or beechwood and use dry hardwood to have a strong flame.

Until the fire is established, leave the oven’s door open for a while. Once you’ve established the fire, place the door in the external position of the chamber leaving the chimney inside the oven. When the pieces of wood have turned into embers and the oven’s dome is white, the oven is ready. Remove the embers from the oven. Close the oven’s door tight leaving the chimney outside the chamber. Measure the temperature. At this stage, the temperature is usually over 270⁰C (518⁰F).

Wait until the temperature is down to 200⁰C (392⁰F), then place the clay baking tray with the pie in the oven. Bake for 1-1 ¼ hours. When the crust is golden-brown, the pie is ready. Remove the clay baking tray from the oven and cover the pie until it cools down a bit. Cut the pie into pieces and serve with a spoonful of Greek yogurt.

Happy cooking everyone!