Mediterranean region has a large variety of phyllo pies with different fillings. Today I’d love to share with you my version of a Phyllo Pie with Onions and Tomatoes which is pretty typical during summer time when tomatoes are abundant. In my native country of Albania we call this dish Byrek me Qepë dhe Domate.
Frozen Phyllo or Homemade?
Typically when I was growing up in Albania, we made all our phyllo pies with homemade layers of phyllo which we stretched with a thin rolling pin. I’m totally biased and prefer homemade phyllo like I do for my Meat Phyllo Pie (Byrek me Mish) or my Spinach and Feta Phyllo Pie (Byrek me Spinaq). Also baklava tastes totally heavenly with homemade phyllo layers.
But sometimes I don’t have so much time to prepare the dough and stretch each layer one by one. So for this recipe, I’ll show you how to use frozen phyllo layers to make this phyllo pie with onions and tomatoes.
You can however mix and match, meaning use frozen phyllo layers with my meat phyllo pie recipe or spinach phyllo pie recipe as well as use homemade phyllo with this recipe for phyllo pie with onions and tomatoes.
Pro-Tip: Thaw the frozen phyllo layers properly before preparing the pie for baking!
Ingredients
This phyllo pie is very simple and doesn’t have a long ingredient list. However, the results might vary a bit based on how you cook the filling and the quality of the ingredients.
I tend to use yellow onions because they’re a bit sweeter in taste when cooked. You can use any tomato variety but you want to make sure tomatoes are just starting to get soft for best flavor.
Let’s Cook:)
This is mainly a summer dish but cooking the filling in the stovetop then baking the phyllo pie might be too hot to do simultaneously. Sometimes I’d cook the filling then let it cool off few hours and later on, I’d assemble the phyllo pie and bake it.
Usually I take the frozen phyllo and let it thaw in the counter a long time before I even start to cook the filling.
Then I chop the onions, blend the tomatoes and do any other necessary preps.
Set the skillet to medium heat in the stovetop, add olive oil and once olive oil is shimmery, add the finely chopped onions to it. Saute onions until translucent.
Then add the blended tomatoes, lower heat to simmer, add oregano salt and pepper and let cook thoroughly.
Once filling is ready, let it rest a little bit. If it’s too hot, it will prevent the layers of phyllo to bake properly.
Drizzle some olive oil on the baking tray you’ll use for baking and make sure to spread it around so it coats the surface evenly. Place 2 phyllo layers to hang about an inch on the sides and 2 others to hang about an inch on the top and bottom. Drizzle olive oil, then add 2 more layers, this time in the middle. We’ll fold the sides at the end and they’ll enclose the pie like an envelope.
Bake the phyllo pie at 375 degrees F until golden brown.
Phyllo Pie with Onions and Tomatoes
Equipment
- 1 large skillet
Ingredients
- 2 phyllo sheets
- 5 yellow onions
- 9 tomatoes soft
- oregano
- 0.5 cup olive oil
- 0.5 tsp sea salt adjust up as needed, this is just a starting point
- 0.5 tsp black pepper add more if needed
Instructions
- Thaw the phyllo sheets on the counter.
- Wash and pat dry the tomatoes, blend them and set it aside. Chop the onions really fine.
- Add couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet, set to medium heat. Reserve the rest of the olive oil for later.
- Once oil in the skillet is shimmery, add onions and saute with a wooden spoon for few minutes until onions start yellowing on the edges and become translucent in the middle. Add blended tomatoes and seasonings of choice. I love to add oregano, sea salt and black pepper. Mix and lower heat to simmer! Cook for about 10-15 minutes then turn heat off.
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Drizzle oil oil on the baking dish. Add layers of phyllo one by one. The first layer should spill over to the sides so you can fold over in the end when you're done adding all the layers.
- Drizzle olive oil every few layers of phyllo. Once you're done adding the first sheet of phyllo, then pour the filling of onions and tomatoes over phyllo. Continue layering phyllo and drizzling with olive oil every 2 layers. Once you are done fold over the sides and add more olive oil.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil the last 10 minutes if the top layer is getting brown too fast. Turn heat off once done baking.
- Let the pie rest for about 15 minutes before cutting into it. Usually I keep the pie covered so its own steam will soften the crispy edges a little. Enjoy:)
Notes
- Based on the size of onions and tomatoes, you might have more filling than needed. If so you have two options, create 2 layers of filling on the ⅓ and ⅔ of layers and make these layers thinner. Or if you don’t want to have so much filling, then you can reserve the leftover filling and make a smaller pie the next day. It holds well refrigerated for few days.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin one of the pictures from this post to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know in comments if you have any questions:). I love to hear from my readers on not only if they made my recipe but also variations and their own methods of cooking this dish.
Thank you for visiting my blog, it means a lot to me and my family!!
More Albanian Recipes
You can find most of my Albanian Recipes at my summarized article about Albanian Food.
Other summer Albanian inspired recipes are:
Leave a Reply