For those of you who know me, you know I’m from Bulgaria. Since I’m cooking foods from different countries, I figured it would kind of be a disgrace if I didn’t do a food from my own country first, so here we go!

Banitsa (pronounced “ba-nee-tsa”) is something that circulates the kitchens of many Balkan families, not just Bulgarians, but is known to be a traditional Bulgarian food. Plus, it’s such a popular food from where I come from that it’s a little hard to overlook. Banitsa is a filo dough pastry that has eggs and feta cheese in it. Sorry vegans, this one isn’t for you. We love our feta! Unlike the English name suggest with the word “pastry,”  it’s not sweet. It’s actually pretty savory because of the feta. It’s mostly eaten as a breakfast food, and you can even get it as “street food” in the mornings. It is also commonly made at home for special gatherings, holidays, or just because. Basically, it’s always a good occasion to have banitsa.

I have to admit, I’ve made banitsa before. But to be on the safe side since I’m just starting this out, I figured I should make something I’ve done before.

This is what banitsa would look life if you were to buy it from a place specifically for banitsa called a “banicharnitsa.”

 

 

 

 

This is what it would look like if you went to  get some breakfast from a banicharnitsa. Yes, we totally and wholeheartedly love our doughy foods. YUM.

 

 

 

 

This is homemade banitsa, which is what I’ll be making since I don’t have the luxury to be in/work in a banicharnitsa in Bulgaria.

 

 

 

Now that you have a better idea of what banitsa is and what it looks like, I’ll make it and let you know how easy it is to make, how long it takes, and any other logistics. Let’s see what happens!

Ingredients:

1. One pack filo dough
2. 8 eggs
3. 12.5 oz. feta cheese
4. 1 cup seltzer water (or any other fizzy drink- Sprite/Mountain Dew work great too!)
5. 2 tablespoons oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Unroll all of the filo dough from its package.
3. Get a large bowl and crumble the feta cheese in it.
4. Take the eggs and crack them in the bowl with the feta cheese.
5. Mix the eggs and the feta cheese together with a fork (it doesn’t have to be smooth or anything- just mixed together).

   

6. Add the seltzer water (or other fizzy drink) and the oil to the mixture and mix slightly as you don’t want to pop all of the fizz.
7. Get a pan and oil the bottom and the sides of it so that the filo dough does not stick to the surface.
8. Start by taking the filo dough and scrunching them up like a little accordion and laying them on the bottom of the pan.
9. After doing two layers of that, take a ladle and put some of the feta-egg mix on the filo dough.

   

10. Twist the pan to the other side and add another layer of scrunched filo dough. Then, add more feta-egg mix on that layer.
11. Continue adding layers of filo dough and feta-egg mix until you run out of both.
12. The top layer should be filo dough with a slight amount of egg mixture to make sure the filo dough doesn’t burn when cooking.

    

13. Put the banitsa in the oven and cook for about half an hour.
14. Finally, and most importantly, enjoy!

Final Product:

My Thoughts and Ratings:

Ratings:

Complexity (1 being easy/5 being hard): ♥

Time (1 being fast/5 being time consuming): ♥

Taste (1 being the worst/5 being the best): ♥♥♥♥♥

Would Recommend (1 being a hard no/5 being totally): ♥♥♥♥♥

Thoughts:

I might be a little biased towards this one, but I totally think that if you want to try something different and happen to have some filo dough, eggs, feta cheese, and any fizzy drink laying around you should try it out. It’s easy, quick, and really good. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t liked it, so that’s a good sign! The beauty of it is that you don’t have to be perfect, and it’ll still turn out well. So if you’re like me, and you want to learn to cook so you’re not stuck with ramen noodles through college, I’d definitely go for it!

 

Да ви е сладко! // Enjoy!