Hortopita Ipeirotiki (Χορτόπιτα Ηπειρώτικη)

Hortopita Ipeirotiki is Epirus folded into a tapsi: handrolled phyllo around chopped horta, leeks, dill, mint, and olive oil, with no cheese to lean on. It is green, lean, and full, the kind of pie a mountain house can make from flour, oil, and whatever the hillside gives that week.

The step that decides it is the wilting. Chop the greens fine, salt them, then squeeze out more water than you think is there before they meet the phyllo. If they go in raw and bulky, they collapse in the oven and leave you with a hollow pie and a wet bottom. Do this one thing and the filling stays even, dense, and tender.

I give the nistisimi version here, the fasting one, because it belongs in the old Epirot repertoire and it tastes clean. If you add feta, you've made another pie. Very good, yes, but another pie. Λίγα και καλά: greens that still smell alive, good olive oil, and patience with the rolling pin.