Za’atar and Labneh Spaghetti Recipe (2024)

Hunted down some real Labneh at a grocer who had it, and glad I did. I’ve cooked with Greek yogurt before in similar dishes and can confirm that the texture and flavor of the real labneh was different than cooking with yogurt. It was richer and more flavorful.Added diced zucchini to the hot oil for one minute before adding the garlic. Added fresh large-diced tomatoes and cherry tomatoes near end of garlic cooking time, before adding the pasta and water. Delicious.

You can make your own richer Labneh by pouring the yogurt into a coffee filter and letting it drip off the liquid. Takes about 15-30 mins. Worth the wait. A few layers of cheesecloth will also work. You can also add nighella (Black sesame seeds they are sometimes called) for additional flavor.

Sarah, the za’atar is added once the pasta is plated. My question is “1/2 cup of za’atar? Really?”

Easy, yummy, bright, creamy, delicious. Can’t get enough of this pasta. I subbed 1/4 cup diced onion instead of the garlic and it turned out great. Such an easy and adaptable recipe. Love, love, love!

I made this recipe for one cutting all quantities in half and it was quite good, using only Greek yogurt and TJ’s Za’atar spices I already had. It’s a simple meal, so good olive oil takes this dish a long way. Lemon juice for garnish really helped this dish not feel so heavy, because it’s quite filling.

What would be the point??

Feeling solidly okay about this dish. There’s this macarona b’Laban dish that we do with garlic, ground beef (fried with fresh cumin), and parsley that absolutely slaps, and this is definitely adjacent to this but hits the comfort food button a little less hard. Would definitely give this to the kiddos on a busy night though for sure.

Hot yogurt spaghetti? No. We threw it out. It was like baby spit-up. (Sorry!) And yes, I used real lebneh. Shudder.

Although skeptical at first, my family loved how rich and tasty this was--and how easy it was to make, if you carefully follow the directions. Zaatar and Labneh are two of my favorite ingredients so I had high hopes. The only place where I strayed from the recipe was to mix half the Zaatar into the pasta before taking it off the heat and spreading the remainder on the individual plates. I've saved this one!

Pasta is sold in 16 ounce boxes. Are cooks supposed to weigh the right amount of pasta for these recipes and discard the rest?

The Z&Z za’atar uses: wild thyme (za’atar), sesame seeds, sumac, and salt; with the wild thyme being the main ingredient. The Spicely Organics uses: sesame seeds, sumac, thyme, marjoram, and savory, with the s/s as the main. The Z&Z is more authentic and can be an acquired taste, would recommend halving to a quarter cup if using and adjusting before serving.

all the haters are clearly delusional. this is one of the simplest and yummiest pasta's you will ever make. if you want to be a lil extra crazy, i would suggest a frying up some garlic in olive oil on the side and adding some breadcrumbs, parsley, and a little pecorino for an additional topping. and yes, 1/2 a cup of za'atar is needed.

A bit meh on its own, but with good tomatoes and evoo - brilliant dish.

I made this as a cold pasta salad, spooning the labneh/zatar into cooked bow ties along with roasted red peppers, pepper flakes, chopped red onion, cucumber, pinches of fennel and cumin seeds, and some barely cooked cold zucchini. Topped with a generous grinding of pepper and pinch of fresh sumac- delicious!

Really good. Simple recipe and the key is to have good ingredients and follow the instructions for emulsifying the labneh/yogurt. If anything I’d say it will need some salt but the addition of extra olive oil and the Zaatar at the end is so satisfying.

all the haters are clearly delusional. this is one of the simplest and yummiest pasta's you will ever make. if you want to be a lil extra crazy, i would suggest a frying up some garlic in olive oil on the side and adding some breadcrumbs, parsley, and a little pecorino for an additional topping. and yes, 1/2 a cup of za'atar is needed.

UPDATE 3rd time making. Used Labneh (prefer) first 2xs. Greek strained in coffee filter overnight and squeezed as much water out as possible. Sauté onion, garlic, zucchini with lots of za’atar and red pepper flakes, s&p. Add chopped cherry tomatoes at end. This time added cooked ground turkey. Added 2 cups pasta water Grated Parm. This time TJ’s Quattro Formaggio (yum). Wonder if olives would be good? Def a recipe to play around with.

Reading these comments, I feel excited about trying this dish with family tonight. My kids can be picky eaters except this dish has pasta, their favorite and has the adventurous labneh and zaatar which I like! May add Dogwood helpful suggestions. I’ll brief the comments on how it goes tonight.

I think I used too much labneh. It came out a bit too creamy.

Not really that good. I love Za'atar, but this was way too much.

This is very bland and unpleasant. Adeena Sussman has a recipe for a much better version that mixes tomatoes with the labneh.

Even if you do everything else perfectly, this dish leans heavily on the quality of your za’atar. If your za’atar is meh, the dish will be so as well. I used a store bought blend from Whole Foods, and was pretty disappointed how far it tasted from what I found at the last Middle Eastern restaurant I ate at. At that point, your best bet is to start modifying the dish with some grilled or stir fried veggies. Calabrian chilies complemented the dish well.

Will try this again, carefully following the recipe. Tried to make it using leftover spaghetti and strained Greek yogurt and it was pretty awful. Sauce separated and couldn’t bring it back together before the overcooked spaghetti broke into bits. Yuck. Too many good reviews so I’ll try again.

This was a huge hit! We added parm at the end too.

For another level of flavor and some crunch I added lightly-browned pine nuts that I sautéed separately then added along with the labneh.

Kids were meh. Emmet had half serving

Mister and I both thought this was bland so we added some Aleppo peppers and a little extra sumac. If I were to try it this again I'd add a splash of lemon juice as well to see if that would brighten things up a bit.