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Manitaropita is a Greek meze dish made with phyllo dough, mushrooms, and cheese. Other meze dishes include spanakopita, kreatopita, and thalassopita. The mushrooms used vary, and the cheese of choice is kefalograviera. Cooks design them as single-serving units and can make an assortment of tiropitas. They can be served hot or cold and make a good packed lunch or midnight snack.
Manitaropita is a Greek dish that is made by stuffing phyllo dough with mushrooms and cheese and folding it into a small triangle. Manitaropita is part of a family of Greek foods called meze, small dishes that are traditionally offered as appetizers. These foods are often found in casual bars and cafes, and also show up at parties and other social gatherings as snacks for guests. Some Greek restaurants and bakeries offer manitaropita, and the dish can also be found frozen, for people who wish to make it at home. Ambitious cooks can create their own.
Greek cuisine includes numerous dishes based on phyllo dough and various fillings. One of the most famous is probably spanakopita, a dish made with spinach, cheese and phyllo dough. However, you can also find kreatopita, small phyllo triangles filled with lamb meat, and thalassopita, which are filled with seafood. Essentially, the cook’s imagination is the only limit when making stuffed phyllo meze.
The mushrooms used in manitaropita vary. A blend of mushrooms is often preferable, to create contrasting textures and flavors; if you live in an area where wild mushrooms are available, we recommend using a wild mushroom blend. Classically, the cheese of choice is kefalograviera, a hard sheep’s cheese, although a range of other hard and soft cheeses such as feta and kefalotiri can also be used.
The mushrooms are cooked before being mixed with the cheese; typically they are cooked with onions and spices and then the cheese is grated or broken up so that the mushrooms can be mixed in. For a more buggy filling, cooks may mix in an egg or two, depending on the overall volume of the filling; cooks don’t want the filling to be too moist, as it can tear the phyllo dough as it’s being handled.
When manitaropitas are made, cooks typically design them as single-serving units. Large sheets of phyllo dough are often cut in half to make two long rectangles, and a small pile of filling is made at one end of a rectangle before the cook folds the phyllo into a triangle and brushes it with butter. Most cooks fold several more rectangles around the first one, creating a layered triangle that will fall apart to form sizzling, crackling layers as it cooks. Cooks can also make an assortment of tiropitas; a mixture of phyllo triangles filled with various things which includes manitaropita and kreatopita along with fillings of the cook’s own invention.
After cooking, manitaropitas can be served hot as an appetizer or used cold as a snack. They are almost pocket sandwiches; if well wrapped, they can be taken on excursions and outings as a packed lunch. They can also make good midnight snacks after a busy party.
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