Main · 1 hour · Serves 6
Gibanica, and the seasoning question inside it
Gibanica is not a dish that needs improving. Layered filo, white cheese, egg and yoghurt, baked until the top blisters and the middle stays soft — it has been right for a very long time, and it is traditionally served with a glass of yoghurt or kefir beside it.
That glass is doing a job. The filling is rich, salty and eggy, and it wants something sharp against it. Bright Pepper does the same job from inside: lemon zest and orange peel for the acidity, black and white pepper against the cheese, a little mint behind it.
Keep the glass anyway. This is not a replacement for it, and anyone who grew up with this pie will tell you the same.
- Serves
- 6
- Time
- 1 hour
Ingredients
- 500 g filo pastry, thawed
- 400 g white cheese, feta or sirene, crumbled
- 4 eggs
- 300 g plain yoghurt, plus a glass to serve
- 150 ml sunflower oil, plus more for the tin
- 2 tsp Bright Pepper
Method
- Heat the oven to 200C fan and oil a deep roasting tin.
- Beat the eggs with the yoghurt and the oil, then fold in the crumbled cheese and the Bright Pepper. Do not add salt — the cheese and the blend have it covered between them.
- Take a sheet of filo, crumple it loosely rather than laying it flat, and drop it into the tin. Spoon over some of the filling.
- Repeat, crumpling and spooning, until both are used up. The crumpling is what makes the layers; a neatly stacked gibanica bakes dense.
- Finish with a thin layer of the filling so the top browns rather than dries.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the top is deeply blistered and the middle has set.
- Rest for 15 minutes before cutting into squares. Serve warm, with the cold yoghurt alongside.