Layers of crisp, buttery phyllo enclosing a tangy filling of feta and egg, baked until shatteringly golden. A ubiquitous Greek bakery and street pastry, sold in trays or hand-held triangles.
Tiropita is the cheese pie of Greek bakeries — layers of paper-thin phyllo wrapped around a tangy egg-and-cheese filling, baked shatteringly crisp. Sold by the slice on every Greek street, it is the savoury twin of spanakopita, and traces its lineage to the ancient layered cheese cake (placenta) of Greece and Rome.
The phyllo shatters into hundreds of buttery flakes, giving way to a warm, tangy, salty cheese center that is creamy but never runny. The contrast of crisp and soft is the whole point. Eaten warm from a paper bag, it is the taste of a Greek morning.
Brushing each phyllo sheet with fat keeps the layers separate so steam puffs them into flaky leaves. The egg sets the feta filling into a sliceable custard, and high heat crisps the exterior before the cheese can weep.
Variations
Triangle hand pies (tiropitakia), with kasseri or mizithra added, spinach-cheese (spanakotiropita), made with homemade country dough instead of phyllo
On the Palate
Where Tiropita sits in the Greek flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 110 min
Crumble the feta and mix with eggs, a little ricotta or yogurt, and pepper to make the filling.
- 22 min
Brush a baking tray with melted butter or olive oil.
- 312 min
Lay a sheet of phyllo in the tray and brush it with butter, repeating to build a base of several layers.
Watch outBrush every single sheet with butter, edge to edge — any dry spot glues the layers together instead of puffing into flakes.
- 44 min
Spread the cheese filling evenly over the phyllo base.
- 58 min
Cover with more buttered phyllo sheets, brushing each one.
- 64 min
Score the top layers into portions and brush the surface with butter.
Watch outScore only through the top layers before baking, not down to the filling — cut too deep and the cheese leaks and burns in the pan.
- 740 min
Bake until the phyllo is deep golden and crisp throughout.
Watch outBake until it's deep golden and sounds crisp when tapped — pale phyllo stays soggy and won't shatter when you cut it.
- 85 min
Cool slightly, then cut along the scored lines and serve.
