Spanakopita - Strifti (Στριφτή) is the coiled form of the spinach pie: the phyllo and filling rolled into a long rope and then wound into a spiral before baking. Strifti means twisted, and that word describes the entire technique. Instead of stacking flat layers in a pan, the pastry is shaped into a tube around the filling and curled, which changes the geometry of every bite, more edges, more crust, and a filling that runs in a coil through the cross-section rather than sitting in a single flat band.
The filling is the familiar one, spinach wrung dry, feta, onion and dill, and the moisture rule is, if anything, stricter here. A wet filling in a coil leaks along the length of the roll and steams the pastry from the inside, so the spinach has to be pressed hard before it goes anywhere near the phyllo. The sheets are laid and oiled or buttered, the filling piped or spread in a line near one edge, and the pastry rolled into a long thin cylinder, then wound from one end into a flat spiral, like a snail shell, and set on the tray. The fat between the layers still does the work of keeping them separate. Good execution is a coil that bakes deep gold with the rolled edges crisping hardest, a spiral that holds its shape and pulls apart in turns, the filling moist and contained along the whole length. Sloppy execution is a roll wound too loose so it unravels and bakes into a tangle, a wet filling that bleeds out the cut ends and leaves the centre of the coil pale and gummy, or pastry under-brushed so the layers fuse and the twist that defines the form is lost to a dense lump.
The coil is one of several shapes the same pie takes. The large pan-cut version sliced into squares and the small triangular handheld are distinct builds with their own ratios and their own folds, and each deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here, as does the parent spinach pie itself. What the strifti contributes to the family is geometry: the rope-and-spiral shaping that maximises crisp edges, held together by the same discipline as every form of the pie, a filling wrung dry and fat worked between every sheet.