There are foods intended to be eaten politely with a knife and fork.
Then there is hot spinach and artichoke dip, which exists primarily so several adults can gather around one bubbling dish with pieces of bread and pretend that double-dipping is the greatest threat facing civilization.
This is also our first proper party dip, so World HQ is expanding into appetizers.
⏱️ Recipe Information
Servings: 6–8 appetizer portions
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Baking Time: 20–25 minutes
Resting Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 40–45 minutes
The baking time allows the cream cheese, mozzarella and Parmesan to melt together while the top becomes lightly golden and bubbly.
The recipe should provide 6–8 generous appetizer portions, depending on how enthusiastically everyone attacks the serving dish.
Ingredients
- 1 package (8 oz/250 g) cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 package (10 oz/300 g) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed very dry
- 1 can (14 oz/398 mL) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of red pepper flakes, optional
- ½ cup additional mozzarella for the top
Preparation
Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Before doing anything else, squeeze as much liquid as possible from the thawed spinach. A clean kitchen towel or several layers of paper towel work well.
This is important.
Failure to squeeze the spinach sufficiently transforms Hot Cheesy Spinach & Artichoke Dip into Warm Green Swamp, which has tested poorly with focus groups.
In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise.
Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan, spinach, artichokes, garlic, onion powder, pepper, salt and optional red pepper flakes.
Spread everything into a small baking dish and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella over the top.
Cooking
Bake uncovered for 20–25 minutes, until the dip is hot and bubbling around the edges.
For a lightly browned top, switch the oven to broil for the final 1–2 minutes.
Watch it closely. The distance between beautiful golden cheese and Captain Moonboot has activated the smoke detector is remarkably short.
Let the dip rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
🥖 The Important Question: What Do We Dip Into It?
Serve it warm with tortilla chips, crackers, toasted baguette slices, pita wedges or sturdy vegetables such as celery, carrots and bell pepper strips.
The word sturdy matters.
A structurally inadequate tortilla chip breaking off beneath the surface creates an emergency recovery operation involving another chip, followed by another chip, until you've accidentally eaten half the dip.
🌶️ Moonboot Modification: Give It Some Attitude
Add one finely chopped jalapeño or a few generous shakes of hot sauce to the mixture before baking.
For something smokier, add ½ tsp smoked paprika.
For something considerably more dangerous to leave unattended, add ½ cup cooked and crumbled bacon.
🧀 Extra-Cheesy Bad Decision
Increase the mozzarella inside the dip to 1½ cups and leave the topping exactly as it is.
Is this necessary?
No.
Neither is dessert, and we've already established where World HQ stands on that issue.
🌙 Make-Ahead Modification
Assemble the entire dip, cover it and refrigerate it for up to 24 hours.
When you're ready, remove it from the refrigerator while the oven heats and bake as directed, allowing an additional 5–10 minutes if necessary.
This creates the useful illusion that you effortlessly produced hot homemade dip just as company arrived.
Captain Moonboot strongly supports advance preparation followed by undeserved admiration.
From the Captain's Log
Spinach is extremely good for you.
Artichokes are vegetables.
Therefore, once we've added cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, Parmesan and mozzarella, this remains fundamentally—
No.
Even Captain Moonboot's Legal Department refused to approve the rest of that sentence.
Just eat the dip. 😁🧄🧀
🚨 WORLD HQ FILING NOTICE: Recipe #10 gives Making Salsa: Recipes & Other Bad Decisions from Captain Moonboot its first proper hot dip/appetizer, while maintaining the cookbook's longstanding commitment to finding legitimate reasons to melt cheese.