Baked Spinach & Feta Pasta

This one-pan baked feta pasta is the perfect weeknight dinner. This simple recipe is made even easier by cooking the pasta in the baking dish. Here's how to make it:

We start by baking a block of feta cheese in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish until softened. Baked feta is the creamy, tangy and flavorful base of this recipe.

While the feta is baking, combine the baby spinach, olive oil, garlic, dill, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Massage the spinach until it's reduced in volume by half. Massaging the spinach helps break down the vegetable's fibrous texture, leaving the leaves with a softer texture, which makes it easier to combine with the dried pasta.

Next, we add the spinach and pasta mixture to the baking dish with the baked feta. Boiling water is poured over the mixture, which will cook the pasta in the baking dish. It's important to cover the baking dish tightly with foil to keep the heat and moisture in so that the pasta cooks through. Bake until the pasta is tender, which only takes about 18 minutes. Once it's baked, stir the pasta, cover and let it sit for 3 minutes before serving. This ensures the pasta has absorbed all the moisture from baking.

Additional reporting by Jan Valdez