This easy Spanakopita Pasta recipe (Spanakopasta!) comes together in only 20 minutes and is packed with yummy Greek flavor! Spinach, feta, dill, and lemon are the stars of this quick and easy recipe, with eggs stirred into the sauce like a carbonara. It’s got all the flavor you love about spanakopita with barely any effort, in a fraction of the time!
Spanakopita has to be one of my favorite Greek recipes, and I enjoyed it a lot throughout my childhood. But I rarely spend the time or effort to make it.
I prefer shortcut spanakopita recipes, like using puff pastry to make mini spinach feta pies in a muffin pan or putting all the flavors together in this DELICIOUS pasta recipe.
(For the real deal, check out this spanakopita recipe).
You guys- this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever cooked. Immediately after tasting it, I added all the ingredients to my grocery list so I can make it again. My kids gobbled it up. There were no leftovers. And it was SO easy to make.
You’re going to love this easy Greek pasta recipe with spinach and feta!
How to make spanakopita pasta
This spanakopita pasta is made similarly to a carbonara, since it uses eggs in the base of the sauce. Here’s how to do it.
- First, cook pasta in heavily salted water until just BEFORE it’s al dente. This is important, as it will finish cooking in the sauce, which will enhance the flavor as well as thicken the sauce a bit.
- While it’s cooking, mix together the base for the sauce. Eggs, feta, fresh dill (or other herbs), lemon zest, and black pepper. No salt needed here- the feta is salty enough.
- Sauté some green onions in butter. Cook them gently- you want to infuse the oniony flavor and soften the onions, rather than brown them completely. This will only take about a minute.
- Add frozen spinach to the skillet. No need to defrost it! It will thaw in the skillet. Just make sure to cook it so most of the liquid evaporates.
- Once the pasta is finished cooking, add it to the skillet, and reserve some pasta water.
- Add the egg and feta mixture to the skillet as well as a little of the pasta water, stirring everything together. The eggs will cook up and form a thick, delicious sauce.
- Let the pasta finish cooking in the sauce for a few minutes.
- If the pasta seems dry, or the sauce seems too thick, just add more pasta water until you get the right consistency.
- Once it’s done, turn off the heat and melt butter into everything and stir in some fresh lemon juice. Top with extra feta and herbs, and a drizzle of EVOO if you want, and you’re done!
Ingredient substitutions
- If you don’t have eggs, no worries. Just add the feta, dill, lemon zest, and juice directly to the skillet when you add the pasta, along with the pasta water. The sauce won’t be as thick or hearty but the feta will melt down and the starch from the water will give it a nice base.
- If you don’t have feta, use another salty farmers cheese. Goat cheese, queso fresco, and cotija cheese are all worthy substitutes for feta.
- If you don’t have dill, use other herbs, or a mix. Mint, oregano, and/or parsley would all be delicious!
- You can use olive oil in place of the butter if you prefer. Spanakopita is made with layers of buttered filo dough, so I love the butter in this recipe because it tastes more like the real thing. But olive oil works too!
What kind of pasta to use
I recommend spaghetti, but you can use any kind of pasta you want.
I actually ended up using angel hair pasta (capellini), because it’s all my grocery store had at the time. It was a little TOO thin. It tasted great, but the pasta was a little too delicate to stir aggressively with the heavy(ish) sauce with feta and spinach.
The good thing about using angel hair pasta? It cooked up SO quickly!
Keep in mind the time it takes to make this recipe will depend on how long it takes to cook the pasta you’re using.
Other Greek recipes
- Greek Spaghetti (with ground beef, cinnamon, and brown butter)
- Manestra (orzo with tomato and ground beef)
- Tzatziki sauce (cucumber yogurt sauce)
- Keftedes (Greek meatballs)
- Greek Lamb Tacos
- Greek Lentil Soup
- Greek Chicken Bites
Check out all my Greek recipes here! And if you’re looking for another easy pasta recipe, try this bruschetta pasta.
Did you know commenting and rating recipes is one of the best ways you can support your favorite food bloggers? If you made this spanakopita spinach and feta pasta, please click the stars below to comment and Rate this Recipe
Spanakopita Pasta (Spinach and Feta Pasta)
Equipment
- Large Skillet
Ingredients
- 8 oz. spaghetti or any other pasta shape, regular or whole wheat
- 4 tablespoons butter divided
- 3 green onions white and green parts, thinly sliced
- 12-16 oz. frozen spinach or fresh- see notes
- 2 eggs
- 6 oz. feta cheese crumbled
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill and/or other herbs, such as mint, oregano, or parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- juice and zest of one lemon
- kosher salt
- extra-virgin olive oil and extra herbs for serving, optional
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions in heavily salted water until one minute BEFORE it's al dente.
- Meanwhile, melt two tablespoons of the butter in a large deep skillet or pot.
- Add the three sliced green onions (white and green parts) and sauté over medium heat in the melted butter until softened (about 1 minute)
- Add the frozen spinach to the skillet with the onions. Sauté until completely defrosted and most of the liquid has completely evaporated (about 3 minutes)
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the chopped fresh dill or other herbs (1/4 cup), the eggs (2), lemon zest, about half of the crumbled feta, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
- When the pasta has finished cooking to almost al dente, reserve 2 cups of the cooking water and add the pasta to the skillet with the spinach.
- Continuing to cook over medium heat, add the feta, egg, and dill mixture to the skillet, as well as 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Stir to coat, and continue stirring, until the egg has cooked and covered every part of the pasta. If the sauce seems too thick or the pasta seems too dry, add it more pasta water 1/4 cup at a time (you'll probably need about 1 cup pasta water total). The pasta will finish cooking in this liquid and the sauce will thicken up- this will likely take about 3-5 minutes.
- When the sauce has thickened and the pasta has completely finished cooking, turn off the heat and stir in the remaining two tablespoons of butter and the lemon juice until butter has melted. Top with remaining crumbled feta, extra fresh dill, olive oil, and season to taste.
Notes
- To use fresh spinach, add it to the skillet according to the directions and cook until wilted and most of the liquid has evaporated. You can use whole baby spinach leaves or chopped mature spinach for this.
- You can use other greens, such as kale, instead of spinach. Chop it up really finely and cook it for a bit longer so it's very tender. Arugula would work nicely as well.
- I found this recipe didn't need any added salt, since the feta is salty and the cooking water from the pasta is as well.
- If you don't have eggs, just leave them out. Add the pasta water to the skillet as directed, and add the feta, lemon zest, pepper, and dill directly to the pasta, stirring to melt all together.
- You can use olive oil instead of butter, if you prefer.
- Feta substitutions: goat cheese, queso fresco, and cotija cheese are similar to feta and can be used as a substitute.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Elle
Holy cow. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!
I didn’t have green onion so subbed in crust a regular cooking onion
Such a great recipe !
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! One of my all-time favorites, too!
Dick van Geldere
Delicious, delicious. And we appreciate the very details of the recipe, and the alternatives. The replies to the comments are an extra. Thanks.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Teresa
Absolutely excellent! Simple, quick and delicious!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Linda
Please pardon my ignorance – but I’m a little afraid off adding the eggs! I want the thickness and flavors, but how does this not turn into “scrambled eggs with pasta?!”
Elizabeth Lindemann
This is a great question! So, adding the egg mixture to the pasta as it cooks and stirring in immediately, WITH the addition of that 1/2 cup of pasta water, helps it not turn to scrambled eggs. The water thins out the consistency a bit, and stirring it immediately helps it turn into a smoother, more homogenous sauce. That said, it may also be helpful to turn OFF the heat completely here, then stir the egg mixture and pasta water in. The residual heat from the pasta will cook the eggs, but not so quickly that it would solidify and seem more like scrambled eggs. Also – if you end up with a few eggy pieces that aren’t completely part of the sauce – it’s no big deal! It will still taste great. If you want to know more about this, I recommend looking up some recipes for carbonara, which is made using the same basic method – I’m sure there are tons of other tips out there. Hope that helps, and hope you like it!
Susie Woodring
I was looking for something to do with all my garden spinach and screamed YES when I saw this recipe! I may be late to the party, but I’m so excited to try this recipe tonight, Thank You!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yay! Hope it turned out well for you!
Ellen FInn
OMG I really have no words that will completely describe how fantastic and easy this dish is!! Just make and if you don’t have all the ingredients use what you have that you know will compliment the other ingredients like butter vs olive oil of lack of dill.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Louisa
Looking forward to making this tonight, can I use fresh spinach instead of frozen?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Yes! Fresh spinach sometimes just needs to cook a little longer to allow the water to evaporate out from it. But it works beautifully here.
Shibaliv
Great recipe–I didn’t even get to the ingredients, your description is detailed enough make this, and it was fantastic! Thx
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Agata
Excellent!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Jeremy Ripton
This was deeeelicious..I woke up today with the appetite of a horse and found ur recipe…It was fun to make amd delicious to.eat…thank you…
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Karen Smith
The first words out of my and my husbands’ mouth was exclaiming, “THIS IS GOOD.” We has seconds and more left for tomorrow! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Ed Holland
Has become a family favorite, including our 11 and 13 year old who keep asking me to make it. This last time I added sauted zucchini to add more veggies and diced chicken thighs, all cooked in the skillet. After putting those on a platter I started the recipe. I had to use regular onion as we had forgotten to get green onions. Really is a one skillet meal. This recipe requires some time but it’s well worth it. We used fresh oregano.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Love the idea of adding zucchini and chicken!
Christina
I was also wondering if chicken could be added! Thanks for sharing.
ed
We usually add chicken. I precooked it in a skillet since this dish doesn’t cook very long and I want the chicken to be cooked through.
elizabeth mcEvoy
Tried it, Totally delicious!!!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Suzanne
I was excited about this recipe as it contained so many ingredients that I love. Unfortunately it turned out quite bland. I added a little fresh garlic. Also, I didn’t add the lemon juice because the flavoring from the rind was enough lemon flavor. Had the juice been added, it would have overwhelmed the dish.
Elizabeth Lindemann
It’s tough when a recipe doesn’t come out like you expect! I do have some suggestions here.
First, lemon juice and lemon zest both have different, unique flavors. I do recommend using the lemon juice – it adds acid, which the zest does not have, which greatly affects the flavor of the dish. If you’re sensitive to lemon flavor, just add a little less juice, but definitely don’t leave it out here, it’s important. If you’re going to omit anything, omit the zest, not the juice.
Another thought is that it was lacking in salt. Do make sure you *heavily* salt the pasta water whenever you make pasta – it’s your only chance to flavor the inside of the pasta, which can add a lot (I literally grab a fistful of kosher salt to add to the water when I make pasta!).
Finally – make sure all the spinach water has evaporated, as it can impart a bitter flavor that can affect a recipe badly (you can also drain the spinach in a mesh sieve before adding it and squeeze out as much water as possible before adding it to the skillet).
Hope that helps!
Alex S
One day I was contemplating of using feta cheese with spaghetti, but wanted something a bit extra to make it more interesting. I found your spanakopasta recipe online and thought I might give it a try, as I love spanakopita. What can I say??? Followed the recipe to the letter and everyone absolutely loved it. Such a small thing, as adding lemon zest and lemon juice in the end transformed the dish to an amazing dish. Thank you so much for sharing
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Jor
My family can’t have dairy. Can I omit the cheese altogether?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hm. The feta is pretty important here – I’d opt for a vegan feta substitute instead of omitting it. Hope that helps!
Kylie Baker
Hi, this is delicious! I am just wondering if I could freeze it In single serving containers so I can enjoy it for work lunches?
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it! Unfortunately, pasta doesn’t freeze super well, so this is something I probably wouldn’t want to freeze. But the leftovers will stay good for a few days, so maybe just eat it for the week after making it! Hope that helps.
Maggie
This isn’t the only version of this recipe on the internet but when I saw that yours included lemon zest I knew I’d like it best. This is a great recipe and the zest added a great lemon note. I only juiced half the lemon – I’d advise adding lemon juice to taste. I didn’t have any green onions but a regular yellow onion, cooked longer, worked fine. Thanks!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Svenska
Yummy- hubby ate two servings. We’re always looking for good vegetarian recipes and are happy to add this to the favorites.
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Sue M
This was so delicious and easy! Loved the lemony dill flavor! We ate it up!!!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!