Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip is one of those recipes you find at every restaurant; Italian ones, Mexican ones, and even American ones. But which cuisine does it originally belong to. From what I could tell from my research the recipe hails from Mediterranean origins.
I kept that in mind as I began to formulate a recipe for this dish. Many of the recipes I saw included some mixture of cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, mozzarella, and parmesan.
The cream cheese is what makes the dish creamy.
The mozzarella makes is stringy.
The parmesan gives it a salty bite.
Okay. So what does the mayo contribute? What about the sour cream? I couldn’t really think of a unique way that these two ingredients contributed to the recipe that another ingredient couldn’t also do.
Enter Ricotta cheese. Ricotta cheese offers the same moisture that mayo and sour cream do but is more true to the Mediterranean origins of the dish.
When you’re prepping your ingredients, make sure your artichoke hearts and spinach have been fully drained and excess liquid squeezed out. I got a can of whole artichoke hearts that I sliced after draining but you can get precut ones if you prefer. I used precut frozen spinach, but cutting the whole leaves yourself works all the same.
While your oven is preheating cook the onion and the garlic until translucent and fragrant. Add the spinach and artichoke hearts in and move constantly so they don’t burn but any excess liquid is cooked off.
This also imparts more flavor in the artichoke hearts.
Remove from heat and immediately season with salt, pepper, and the optional crushed red pepper.
Add the cream cheese, ricotta cheese, half the shredded mozzarella, and shredded parmesan and mix thoroughly.
At this stage, you can give the dip a quick taste and salt or spice the mixture more depending on your taste preferences.
Grease an oven safe baking dish (pie sized) and evenly spread the mixture inside. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on the top and bake for 22 – 25 minutes or until the mozzarella is lightly browned.
Enjoy the Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip with your favorite tortilla chips or crisps!
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Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip
Equipment
- Oven safe baking dish (pie sized)
Ingredients
- 10 oz Frozen Spinach thawed and squeezed out, whole or chopped
- 1 14 oz Can of Whole Artichoke Hearts drained and chopped
- 6 oz Cream Cheese
- ½ Cup Ricotta Cheese
- ⅓ Cup Grated Parmesan, packed
- ⅔ Cup Shredded Mozzarella, divided into ⅓ cups low moisture
- 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
- ½ Yellow Onion, diced
- 1½ tsp Kosher Salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Drain and chop artichoke hearts.
- Thaw and squeeze out spinach. Chop if it is not prechopped.
- Finely mince the garlic and dice the onion.
- In a pan, heat the olive oil and cook the onions until translucent.
- Add in the garlic and cook lightly.
- Toss in the spinach and artichokes and cook until any remaining liquid is gone. Wait until some of the artichoke pieces have very lightly browned.
- Transfer the above mixture to a large bowl and add in the salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.
- Mix in the cream cheese, parmesan, ricotta, and ⅓ of the mozzarella.
- Transfer to an oven safe dish, about 8 inches wide, and top with the remaining ⅓ mozzarella.
- Bake for 22 – 25 minutes, until the mozzarella has melted and browned a bit.