Pasta is one of our go-to meals. It’s something we eat at least once a week, whether we’re trying out one of Giada De Laurentiis’ best pasta recipes, or relying on a family classic like Martha Stewart’s cheesy weeknight spaghetti. So when we saw a new TikTok food trend involving pasta that we’d never tried before, we knew we’d have to give it a go. It’s baked feta pasta, or uunifetapasta, and it’s the solution to making a weeknight pasta dinner that tastes like something you’d order at a restaurant.
Apparently, the dish was invented in Finland – uunifetapasta means oven-baked feta pasta. It’s definitely the type of cozy meal we crave on cold winter nights, so it makes sense that it’s popular in a wintry nation like Finalnd.
To make this baked feta pasta, you’ll need, well, feta. Look for the kind that comes in a block, rather than one that’s pre-crumbled. Not only is the quality of the block feta usually better, but it can also stand up to the heat of the oven better than tiny crumbles, which can dry out and burn.
Drizzle a baking dish with olive oil, place the feta in the dish, and hit that with some oil too. Then, add a bunch of tomatoes to the baking dish as well, whether they’re cherry tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, or heirloom tomatoes. You can also add red onions, garlic, bell peppers, herbs, olives, and capers – the recipe is sort of a blank canvas.
Bake this mixture in the oven until the tomatoes are cooked through and the feta has softened. You can put the dish under the broiler for a minute or two if you want to get more color on the cheese and tomatoes, which will help deepen the flavor.
While the feta and tomatoes are baking, boil up your favorite pasta shape. Once the feta is done, just add your cooked pasta to the baking pan and toss it together with the cheese and veggies until it’s creamy and well-mixed. The result? Your favorite pasta coated in a creamy, tangy, sweet sauce of feta and roasted tomatoes.
There are even variations that make it a one-pan meal by adding the pasta and some water directly to the baking dish, then cooking it together with the feta and tomatoes.
If you’re not a fan of feta, you can also try the recipe with goat cheese.
We can even see it working with cream cheese, if you’re not a fan of goat cheese either.
It’s a simple way to break out of your pasta rut, and it doesn’t involve the jarred tomato sauce that we usually are forced to rely on. Add some crusty bread to scoop up any leftover baked feta and tomatoes, and you’ve got a dinner you won’t soon forget. Just make sure to film the cooking process for your TikTok followers.
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