If your ideal meal falls somewhere between a snack board and a dinner party spread, this surprisingly simple yet visually stunning recipe is about to become a new favorite. It's time to get acquainted with seadas saganaki.
In her cookbook, Medesque, culinary creator Georgina Hayden describes seadas saganaki as "the love child of an Italian-Greek-Middle Eastern delicacy which all share that lovely salty-sweet combination. Seadas, from Sardinia, is a sweet, deep-fried pecorino cheese ravioli; Greek saganaki is fried cheese drizzled with honey; knafeh is their Middle Eastern cousin of syrup-soaked kataifi pastry over cheese." Sounds like the ultimate culinary meeting point where three beloved food traditions meet in one crunchy, savory, sweet bite.
"Truth be told, these can be eaten at any time of day," Hayden points out, "but are lovely at breakfast." (Honestly, that's the perfect motivation to get out of bed.) "Thyme and Aleppo pepper, or red pepper flakes, are both definitely needed here as counterpoints, so don’t leave them out." These garnishes cut through the richness to bring the whole bite into balance.
Seadas Saganaki (Cheese and Honey Triangles) Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 oz (1 cup crumbled) feta (vegetarian, if needed)
- 1½ oz (scant ½ cup grated) pecorino (vegetarian, if needed)
- ½ unwaxed lemon
- 1 cup store-bought shredded mozzarella (vegetarian, if needed)
- Leaves and spriglets from a few thyme sprigs
- ¼ cup shelled unsalted pistachios
- 8 sheets of phyllo dough (from a 16-oz box), thawed if frozen
- Olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, to serve (optional)
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, break up the feta with a fork until it is finely crumbled. Finely grate in the pecorino and lemon zest. Add the shredded mozzarella and most of the thyme leaves. Mix everything together and set aside. Finely chop the pistachios.
- When you are ready to make the triangles, get the phyllo dough out of the fridge. Lay a sheet out in front of you, short side closest to you, and brush with olive oil, then lay a second sheet on top. Spoon one-quarter of the cheese mixture over the bottom corner of the phyllo, leaving a gap around the edge, then fold that corner over into a triangle shape. Repeat, folding the triangle away from you up the phyllo sheet, tucking in the edges as you go, until you have a sealed, folded parcel. Repeat with the remaining phyllo dough and cheese filling. When you have made all the triangles, set a large frying pan over a medium heat and pour in enough olive oil to just cover the base. Fry the parcels for 2–3 minutes on each side, in batches if need be so as not to crowd the pan, until golden all over. Remove from the pan onto a plate lined with paper towels to blot off excess oil, then transfer to a serving plate.
- Drizzle each triangle with ½ tablespoon honey and sprinkle with a good pinch of seasoning, some of the chopped pistachios, and a few thyme leaves. I love a pinch of Aleppo pepper too; it adds a lovely heat. Serve straight away.
Excerpted from Medesque: Everyday Recipes with Mediterranean Roots. Used with the permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury. Text copyright © 2026 by Georgina Hayden, Photography copyright © 2026 by Laura Edwards.
