I don’t remember the first time I ate this dip but I do remember it was with my mom. I think it was more than two decades ago. We were at one of her favorite restaurants, Cibo, which eventually became my favorite, too.

Cibo is an Italian caffe-paninoteca (cafe and sandwich bar) in Manila, and we used to frequent it whenever we were at the mall (which was very often, as we are very good shoppers). My mom loves their paninis, particularly the prosicutto praga with ham, gruyere, and mushrooms. She brought home half of her panini one evening, I took one bite, and I immediately loved it, too.

One day we ordered the spinach dip: spinaci zola, or spinach and gorgonzola, and it came with these cripy rounds of crostini. I took one bite, and another, and ever since then, I order it everytime I was at Cibo. Which is no longer often, as I have been living away from Manila for years. But I still yearn for my little trips to the mall with my mom and a ramekin of this spinach dip. And while my mom and I can go online shopping together, chat on Facetime regularly, I missed this dip… until now. Because now I can easily whip this up, and as I’m savoring it, I’m thinking of my mom, too.
Warm and cheesy, but bright green so it makes you (me) feel righteous, this is the dip that dinner parties are planned around. There’s an entire package of frozen spinach in it, but also a bunch of decadent ingredients: butter, cream, gorgonzala, mozzarella. Ever...