How to Make the Baked Feta Pasta – taking the world by a storm

Whether you’re an avid TikTok user or just a casual Instagram consumer, by now you’ve probably seen the baked feta pasta taking the social media world by storm. Finnish food blogger Jenni Hayrinen first created the dish back in 2019 (#uunifetapasta). It became so popular that stores ran out of feta.

It’s easy to see and understand why this recipe has achieved viral fame. Cherry tomatoes and a whole block of feta are baked until bursting and softened. They are then tossed with garlic, basil and tender pasta for a beautifully cheesy dish.

Here are some tips and tricks on how to make this yummy dish and join the fun!

Pasta

We suggest not to use a full packet of pasta. You want to baked feta and tomato to be coating the pasta and not end up being dry.

Use a shorter pasta for this dish: fusilli, penne or rigatoni. The short pasta will absorb the sauce and make it more enjoyable to it. I love it when the sauce gets stuck into the wholes of the penne or rigatoni!

As all pasta dishes, do preserve some of the pasta water once you’ve cooked your pasta al dente – the starchy pasta water will help loosen the sauce.

Feta

Get good quality feta as it is the star of the dish. We would recommend using sheep’s milk feta v/s cow’s milk feta as the latter is crumblier and more sour compared to other fetas.

Seasonings

Don’t be afraid to use a lot of the olive oil – they will help roast or even confit the tomatoes to bring our their natural sweetness.

We suggest to keep the seasonings simple – including salt, pepper, garlic and basil. However, feel free to add dried oregano or an Italian seasoning blend before baking for added flavor. However, avoid lemon juice, vinegar or parmesan, as this dish already has intense flavor and acidity.

The balance of salt is very important in this dish, you can easily go from not salty enough to overly salty. I suggest you add some salt prior to baking  and if need be, you can finish it off with some salt flakes prior to serving.

Ingredients

 

Method

 

 

We hope you enjoyed our take on this recipe – everyone is having a lot of fun at the moment with this. They are getting creative and trying other versions of baked feta pasta. Try using spinach instead of tomatoes or even peppers.

Comment below on which version of the baked feta you tried and do check out our gourmet food section.