Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto

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Happy Thanksgiving! I realize I am a little late on that, but I’ve been out of state since Tuesday. I had a great Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see my family, especially since I haven’t seen them since July. I hope you all had a great holiday! I’m sorry to say I won’t be updating the blog with any ideas for leftover meals since I thought it better not to fly with leftovers 🙂

I know I have mentioned on here before that my family does not cook with recipes, and I don’t really, either. A big reason I started this blog back in the day was to document recipes–be it actually measuring things out when creating my own concoctions or trying to figure out via trial and error what, exactly, make the dishes my grandmothers prepare so much better than the ones anyone else does. One of my favorite dishes my paternal grandmother (grandma =  “yiayia”) makes is plasto. I think plasto must be regional, because I’ve never heard of anyone else who makes it, nor have I ever seen it on a menu at a Greek restaurant. Even an internet search didn’t yield much in the way of results, so perhaps its name is also regional (if you’re curious, yiayia is from a smallish town in Greece called Karditsa). At any rate, plasto is basically a savory pie of greens and cornmeal crust. The filling is similar to spinach pie/spanakopita, but with a little more variety. The crust is what makes this different than traditional spanakopita and, in my opinion, much tastier.

A while back, I asked my grandmother how she made her plasto. As I said, I love the dish and enjoy variations of spanakopita. By variations, I mean methods for the lazy. I am a pretty terrible Greek when it comes to phyllo–I hate using it. I tend to make my mini spanakopitas with puff pastry, actually, because I’m too lazy and impatient when it comes to working with phyllo. My yiayia said that of course she couldn’t tell me how to make plasto–but, she could show me. So, when we were in town for Thanksgiving, we headed to yiayia’s to get a lesson in plasto.

You’ll have to excuse most of the pictures below as my grandma isn’t used to the idea of photographing food, let alone delaying the process of cooking with something crazy like taking pictures. Most of the pictures turned out blurry because she was moving so fast. The woman put the plasto together in like 10-15 minutes, I kid you not!  Eventually I will make this at home with better measurements than what is below (and probably not in the yiayia-sized pan, since it’s just the two of us eating it), but I thought I’d give the basic method and share some pictures for now.

I decided to submit this to the Festive Food Fair 2007 hosted by Morsels & Musings because not only is it a food that is important to my culture (and certainly served at family holidays), it’s something my yiayia always makes when I visit, so it’s definitely something special to me. I’m so happy I got a chance to learn how to make this delicious dish and spend some quality time with yiayia!

Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto

First, clean (and dry) all your greens (or “horta”). You can use anything you want, really. Sometimes my grandmother will use dandelion greens. For today, we used about 1.5 lbs of spinach, a bunch of swiss chard, a few sliced leeks (make sure to wash them well), and about 1/2 cup of fresh dill.  Mix them all together.

To the greens, you will want to add some feta cheese (about a pound crumbled), a couple pinches of salt and a little extra virgin olive oil (probably 2 Tbsp.).

Spread some softened butter and olive oil on the bottom of your pan. Yes, this will help with sticking but more importantly, it will give flavor (and cohesion) to the pie. So don’t be too stingy with the fatty goodness!

In a bowl, mix one container of yellow cornmeal with a pinch of salt and some milk (and sure, you can use fat free to combat some of the oil/butter). For a whole container of cornmeal, you will probably use about a cup of milk here, but go by consistency. The mixture should be soft and moist, but still slightly crumbly when you pick it up.

Place half the cormeal mixture in the pan.

Press the mixture down, evenly, to form a crust.

Now, add the greens/feta mixture over the bottom crust.

Spread the mixture evenly.

Whoops, I think we need some more cheese! Use your judgment here as you may already have a good amount of feta, but my judgment always says “more cheese.”

Now, to the remaining cornmeal mixture, you will want to add some milk. You don’t want the mixture to be too liquidy or pourable (ignore the picture here as we added more cornmeal, but I wanted to add a picture of every step and this is all I had), but it will be sort of spreadable whereas the other mixture was more crumby. Maybe about 1/2 cup milk.

Now–you guessed it–put the other half of the cornmeal mixture on top of the greens to form an upper crust.

It’s evenly pressed down and almost done, but…

it needs some more olive oil and a few dollops of butter on top.

A-ha! Now it’s ready to go into the oven. The oven temperature was everything from 550 to 350 while I was there, so this, too, is unscientific. However, I would say about 400 or 425 for 50 minutes, or until the crust is set and golden brown should do it.

Mmm, it’s done! Look at that yummy looking, golden brown crust!

Time to slice into that puppy


…and plate it up.

Here’s my serving (a big one, of course). Sure, it’s not the most beautiful *looking* thing but…

it sure tastes good!

Tom likes it, too!

And yiayia gets to enjoy the fruits (no, not those terrible plastic ones!) of her labor.

Good to the last bite.

The Chefs! (Yes, I am named after my yiayia, although my full name is just Elly whereas her name is Eretheli but people call her Elly).

Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto

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16 thoughts on “Cooking with Yiayia: A Lesson in Plasto

  1. I have made this wonderful dish 4 or 5 times from this description. It is my absolute favorite way to use up the “greek greens” from our garden. (I really don’t know what kind of greens they are technically – my father-in-law calls them glicka). I like to add some chopped onion and garlic, and I use fresh oregano, dill, and mint. It doesn’t get any better than this. Thanks, Elly.

  2. I’m so glad to find your blog and I’m anxiously awaiting my garden of greens so I can make this. My daughter and are both celiac but she also has the complication of a citrus allergy so we haven’t been able to enjoy Greek food the way we used. I’m going to enjoy digging into your blog and tweaking the recipes to our needs so we can once again enjoy Greek food.

  3. Hi Elly,

    I just discovered your website and I love it!!! My mother was born in
    Missincola, Thessaly, Greece. I am very familiar with plasto and love it.
    My mother would make this dish mostly in the summer when the greens
    were at their peak. My mother would go in the back yard and pick priclkly
    nettles. There is a greek word for them but I couldn’t begin to spell it. The
    pictures of your yiayia’ls plasto bring back such fond memories of my mother.
    My mother has passed away, but my sister keep her memory and her recipes
    a live. You are right, this recipe and dish is a regional one, and if I am not
    mistaken, only the people in Thessaly make this dish. I am so happy I found
    your website and will frequent it often. Thank you again, and keep cooking,
    it’s good for the soul!!

  4. I know this was posted a year or so ago, I but I have to say this looks delicious. There is one question, though…what size is the container of corn meal? Your blog is terrific and I, too, am a fan of Mr. Rick Bayliss.

    Have a wonderful day!

    Debbie…(O:
    >

  5. Trying this for a first time. My mom made plasto always but she boiled the cornmeal with water n added to bottom of pan. I never perfected this recipe. Keep u posted. Looks like my moms recipe. Opa

  6. Thank you and your YiaYia, I have been trying to find a recipie for Plasto for years.
    My YiaYia was Only Greek by Marrige but she learned from her Mother in Law.she taught me quite a few recipies (like me she could”nt tell me she had to show me) the first time we made cookies I think We used about 14 cups of flour by the time we were done everyone in a 5 mile radius had Greek cookies for Easter. I never found out how to make Plasto ( and that is what she called it) My mother has told me stories of going to her YiaYias house and she used to make her own Filo It was an all day project. Rolling and wrapping up each one on a filo stick then Unwrapping onto the bed covered in towel and parchment paper. then back to the kitchen to make another piece. I think about that process and appreciate the fact that I can just buy it at the supermarket. I intend on checking out every word on all your pages. Thanks again
    Keni

  7. Loved reading about Yiayia’s PLASTO as I grew up eating it and love making it! Both my parent’s heritage is from Thessaly and love it with plain tangy yogurt.on the side as it a refreshing compliment. A secret I was told is to pat down the bottom crust as thinly as possibly for a crispy crust. I also add a little good extra virgen oil to the spinach mixture for extra flavor and more fresh dill. The true PLASTO is made with nettle greens and an assortment of others. I still like it with fresh spinach, leeks and dill as so much easier to find. Keep up the great family memories on your blog! Nancy, Winnipeg,Manitoba Canada

  8. Omigosh I know your Yiayia very well!! She’s Thea Eretheli to us!!! What a surprise to see a recipe for plasto let alone it coming from a wonderful kind loving woman like your Yiayia. Can’t wait to give it a go… I’m sure it will not disappoint!!! Filakia

  9. Hi Elly. My dads side of my family is from Karditsa too. They left Greece in the 60’s I think when their village was submerged from flooding of the lake and came to Sydney Australia. I love that I scrolled past this.
    My Yiayia used to make this all the time for us until I got married and then she was too old to make it and went into a nursing home and no one I ever asked new if plasto that wasn’t family. Thank you so much! I can show people something else other than spanakopita!
    I could eat plasto EVERY SINGLE DAY with yoghurt!

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