Phyllo Wrapped Feta with Olive Tapenade

Something unique for your next dinner party—delicate, crispy Phyllo-wrapped feta with a tapenade.

*PHYLLO-WRAPPED FETA WITH OLIVE TAPENADE*

*Olive Tapenade:*
2 cups Kalamata olives, pitted
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs (soft, not dry)
1/4 cup capers
5 anchovy fillets, in olive oil
1/4 cup chopped red peppers
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped red onion or shallot
1 tbsp fresh garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup olive oil

*PHYLLO Wrap:*
3 sheets phyllo dough per parcel
Feta cheese block, sliced into thick rectangles
Melted unsalted butter for brushing
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with a splash of water)
Olive oil, for pan-frying
Sesame seeds
Roasted red peppers (optional)

*To Assemble:*
Lay out 3 phyllo sheets per wrap, brushing each layer with oil
Place feta and a spoon of tapenade in the center
Add roasted red pepper if using
Fold up like a parcel and seal with egg wash
Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle sesame seeds if desired

*To Cook:*
Pan-fry in olive oil just to brown the exterior
Transfer to 400°F oven and bake 10–15 minutes until golden and crisp
Serve warm with pesto oil or fresh herbs

⏱️ Chapters / Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: What We’re Making
00:17 – Best Way to Work with phyllo (Dry + Damp Towels Tip)
00:40 – Layering the Phyllo Dough
00:54 – What Else Can You Wrap in Phyllo?
01:34 – Adding Red Peppers for Variation
01:47 – Sealing and Wrapping the Phyllo
02:03 – Why Egg Wash Matters
02:13 – Brushing and Topping with Sesame Seeds
02:35 – Spinach, Meat, or Cheese Fillings You Can Use
03:02 – Heating Oil for Pan Frying
03:20 – Making the Olive Tapenade
04:00 – Tapenade Tip: Don’t Over-Puree
05:20 – Pan Frying: Just to Brown
05:40 – Testing Oil Temp with Seeds or Flour
06:06 – Cooking Safely and Prepping Ahead
07:12 – Make-Ahead and Oven Baking Tips
07:39 – Cutting and Serving Tips
08:02 – Garnishes and Sauces (Pesto Oil)
09:05 – Serving Ideas for the Tapenade
09:35 – Final Thoughts: Endless Variations + Party Tip
10:19 – Outro & Music

welcome back to Medusa Kitchen today we’re making phyllo wrapped feta and we’re putting an olive tapenade in it which is an olive dip that I used to make at the new French Cafe so I’ve got one in the oven and we’re gonna show you how to build it if you’re working with Phyllo and uh you’re gonna be back and forth with it and then you’re gonna have like two or three other things going instead of covering it with a damp towel put dry towels down first and then put a damp towel over that that way it doesn’t dry out plus it doesn’t get soggy from the wet towel and you can just fold it off like this so we’re going to do three layers Phyllo is can be intimidating but it really isn’t you can use it more for more than just spanakopita and baklava you can wrap cheese you can wrap uh fillings like the cheese for uh lasagna or stuffed shells you can use that cheese mix with the the eggs and the Parmesan cheese and the ricotta and the mozzarella and maybe fresh basil alright so we got three here this is normally what we would use if we were making individual spanakopitas now this tapenade this olive tapenade I’m going to show you how to make it but to get these started I have to have it already made the recipe I have is for 1 quart of olive tapenade as you can see on the second one just a little variation I got some of those roasted red peppers I did last week for the uh red saga we’re gonna put some on this one too as well now we get our phyllo covered keep that from getting dry I’m not gonna be using it but until I put it away I don’t want it to dry out on me so yeah dry towels first wet towels on top we bring the sides in we make sure that gets folded there and then we have a little bit of egg wash that helps us seal this up and then we flip it over that’s why we put that olive tapenade on the bottom first we brush that with a little egg and we top it with sesame seeds the one with the red pepper same deal you can use like I said you can use uh the ricotta filling for Italian dishes you can use a different cheese if you’d like you can use goat cheese uh if you’re a spanakopita fan you could put instead of the olive tapenade you can use cooked spinach with some fresh dill and make yourself an individual spanakopita you can even fill these up with a nice Greek meat filling that’s cold so then when you pan fry it and roast it it’s delicious okay so now I’ve got some olive oil here we’re gonna let that heat up a little bit we set that carefully into our pan I already had this oil hot okay about a medium heat so while that’s cooking let’s make that olive tapenade got 2 cups of good Greek kalamata olives pitted half a cup of fresh bread crumbs okay if you’re gluten free use gluten free bread but use fresh bread don’t use dry bread crumbs it adds uh the bread crumbs are there to to pick up all the juices and oils and uh the the dry just don’t work as well teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper got 1/4 cup of fresh Italian parsley and fresh dill one ounce of lemon juice five anchovy fillets packed in olive oil I got 1/4 cup of capers tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic 1/4 cup of red peppers this is uh this adds a little bit of sweetness and color to the tapenade as you can see the one that I made yeah it’s got those nice pieces of red in there and when this gets really cold it sets up nice in a scoop it’s such a nice option to use on a antipasto platter where you have salamis and cheeses and artichoke hearts um I’ve got some hard boiled eggs this would be good on half hard boiled cooked eggs as an appetizer uh it’s great on croutons or good bread you got a quarter cup of red onions you could use shallots if you want and 1 cup of olive oil there’s no salt in this recipe because the capers the anchovies and the olives have the salt already we puree that and I usually go no more than 10 or 12 seconds maybe 15 but you don’t want to turn this into a paste that’s really smooth you want it to have some texture so all you basically want to do in the oil is pre brown it and then you pour the oil off kind of like we did the saganaki and you can bake it in the pan or you can use one of the fancy cast iron skillet pans I usually if I have something like these lemons you know I would squeeze a little just to see if it snaps or if I had some flour or I could take a few sesame seeds drop them in there and if they start sizzling and float up so I put something in the oil and I usually can tell by the smoking of how well the oil is smoking all right we don’t want to get this too brown we’ll put the red pepper one in you know when you set these in make sure you have the spatula so you’re not splashing the oil at yourself okay it’s nice to be safe in the kitchen let me grab a towel here is it better to do it in a pan one side at a time or could you do it in a pot where it’s fully covered you could do as many as you want but you have to be Johnny on it you know um if you’re doing this like for catering yeah you know you’d have you’d need two people working at it and you’re working with hot oil can be dangerous but if you’re doing this for a dinner party I pre did this one and you can do this ahead of time you can have five or six of these on a nice little sheet pan kind of like the one I got here you know you put a piece of paper down and you line them up on here and you keep it room temperature and then when you’re ready for your party you bake it for 10 or 15 minutes 400 degrees and then it can be served so these can be pre made ahead of time if you didn’t brown it ahead of time that would be fine too but you’re gonna want them to kind of get room temperature alright so this is this is the red pepper one OK this is the one I made before the taping I’m just gonna slide that off on here you don’t wanna flame this because it’ll burn the phyllo and the lemon juice will make the phyllo soggy then you need a serrated knife and I’m cutting this diagonally cause I really want to let you see what this looks like inside you can serve this with some red peppers some fresh herbs and you know I made some basil pesto oil couple weeks ago we did a pesto show right a little bit of that on the red peppers and there you have it it’s it’s olive tapenade great on many things bread antipasta platters on croutons served with salad anywhere you would use olives this tapenade is a great replacement and don’t be afraid to put the anchovies in there because you really can’t taste them they just add add a layer of umami flavor and the saltiness that you need but I had Zach try it he didn’t even know there was anchovies in this because he didn’t taste them but it wasn’t flat because there was the anchovies in there could you use an anchovy paste um you could but get the small can in the store where there’s like seven or eight of them in there I’m gonna sell it in the store because I just think it’s a great condiment on the phyllo you need a steak knife that’s serrated you can put anything you want with the cheese spinach pesto peppers herbs prosciutto ham the list is endless it’s delicate and flaky and light because we only use three layers really simple you can prep it ahead of time and it’s great for dinner parties because it’s different and it’s delicious and it keeps the cheese warm it’s almost like baked Brie Greek style we’re not gonna be selling this in the store this is straight from Linda you know we’re just doing this to show you how to make it so don’t come to Medusa saying hey I want that phyllo wrap thing you guys have to start cooking I can’t do all the work anyways thanks for joining us I appreciate the followers and the support and we’re gonna keep it coming send suggestions we wanna know what you wanna know how to make have a great weekend we’ll see you next Wednesday