Spinach & Cheese Pastries

Servings: 8 pastries, plus the leftover unused filling. merrr could easily eat 4 pastries for dinner, in spite of salad, desert, and late afternoon grilled cheese. Sooo... about 2 merrrr-servings or maybe 3 not-too-hungry people.

3 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped a bit
a couple dashes dried thyme
1 pt low fat ricotta
3/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 egg
1 10 oz pkg frozen spinach
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets OR 2 pkgs Puff Pastry Shells

Saute garlic on medium until it smells good and is a bit cooked (3-5 minutes). Add thyme, let cook briefly in pan (toasting the spices). Add chunk of frozen spinach and a bit of liquid, cook until it's no longer a frozen block then cook another minute or so more.

OR if you're lazy, just cook frozen spinach according to package directions (boil 1/4 cup water, add spinach & garlic and thyme, boil another 4-6 minutes).

However you decide to cook it, drain spinach well using a mesh strainer. Mix all ingredients.

Two methods, Sheets or Shells

Fills about 1 package of Pepperidge Farm Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets, with about 1.5 cups left over filling. Filling method: cut each sheet into 4, plop some in the middle, fold the corners up and squeeze shut. Cut slashes in the top for ventilation, but actually, they always burst open anyhow so if you skip this step, no problem. Bake filled pastries until golden brown, about 25 minutes at 375.
If using shells, bake shells at 400 til puffed and lightly brown (15-20 minutes). Remove from oven, remove tops and soft innards, fill with spinach-cheese stuff. Reduce oven to 325, replace tops, bake 15 minutes more. Even with 12 shells, you'll probably still have a bunch of filling left.

(This is pretty good after we added the garlic and extra herbs. It's got a light cheesy flavor. - merrr aug '02)

To avoid shock, do not read the nutritional information on the puff pastry... Let's just say this you might want to serve this with something light like a salad. :-)

Recipe fabricated by merrrr, sunspark, and the letter R.

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