My thinking was "not" but "begrudgingly curious" I said yes

Can't Find Feta Anywhere? It's because everyone is cooking this viral cheesy pasta

We´ve all been influenced at some time I´m sure by social media to try and buy all kinds of ridiculous allsorts, candles that smell like Gwyneth Paltrow´s vagina for example.(I always wondered if I lit one would it start a bush fire ).So who would have thought until last lockdown that a sourdough starter was a reasonable thing to attempt at home. Now in lockdown 3.0, just as we´ve covered our kitchen worktops with enough Seville oranges to try our hand at producing 47 jars of marmalade the social media is ahead of the game once again. Tik Tokers wait for no man. Citrus preserves were so last year´s lockdown and now instead everyone who is anyone, every journalist, newspaper, magazine, food blogger or influencer is spending an unfamiliar February making a one pot dish of feta and tomato pasta.Last years pasta chandelier it seems is this seasons go to dinner.
My initial sentiment toward viral food moments tends to fall between immense skepticism and disdain, but If there’s one thing that happened in the past year to improve my life, it’s that I got totally obsessed with TikTok. First of all, for the record I am so not the TT demographic, I am not under 34, I am no longer in my teens and dont even consider myself a young adult anymore and I am so not sold on baked carbohydrates promoted by teenagers.,So why am I subscribing to this new viral phenomenon?
In a normal year, I might count that as a trivial or even depressing addition to my life, but in 2020 I learned to appreciate even the tiniest things that could put a smile on my face. If that means streaming TikTok so I can feel even a little joy injected into my day, then so be it. TikTok, the new arbiter of food trends, strikes again, launching a new recipe into the viral stratosphere.
This newest instalment to the pantheon of internet "5 minutes of recipe stardom", however, took an unlikely path to arrive at its current A-list position. The US culinary website Food52 tracked the recipe back to its originator, Finnish blogger Jenni Häyrinen, who posted it on her Instagram account back in 2019 and has watched it go viral on social media a couple of times since then, most recently on TikTok. Apparently feta pasta is incredibly popular in Finland because a couple of other bloggers also blogged about it as well .In 2020 Häyrinen launched National Uunifetapasta (baked feta pasta) Day in Finland, urging the entire country to make the dish.
Last week, she took the initiative global, fuelling the flurry of social media attention yet again.
This is the story about yet another viral TikTok trend that I kind of sort of wanted to hate...but didn't. It's not that I didn't think the idea sounded delicious. It's just that the whole thing seemed too simple, too obvious. Was that just me being  arrogant? Obviously roasting a block of feta with bursting tomatoes is going to be amazing, and you´d be hard-pressed to find an easier way to get dinner on the table. It’s based on an age old Greek appetizer, baked feta. And while many of TikTok's finest food trends involve a laundry list of saccharine-sweet ingredients or require professional pastry chef-level decorating skills, this week's viral recipe was as easy as they come. The six ingredient recipe involves baking a block of feta surrounded by whole cherry tomatoes, garlic, oregano and olive oil, then mashing everything together and adding cooked pasta, and some of the cooking water. A final flourish of basil leaves and you’ve got a creamy, salty, fragrant pasta dish in about 20 minutes. But is the hype good enough to break the internet? Is it really worth 10 million tik tok views? Was it as delicious as everyone says? Lets see shall we. I decided disdainfully to give it a go. My answer, begrudgingly, is yes It was OK. But dare I say, not perfect? Here are some of my thoughts

1. A good student dish.My initial thoughts were confirmed, this is a clever dish for a young cook. Very little if no prep involved, very little cooking involved and an ingredient list that is easily sourced and tailored to fit any pocket .What the fuss is about I dont know, its just another tasty pasta dish. Baking a block of feta with some cherry tomatoes then stirring it through some pasta isn´t exactly rocket science. If The Greeks have been doing it for years and no one has batted an eyelid....I rest my case. It is the sort of dish I would have cooked in halls of residence as a student when only a galley kitchen was available and facilities were very limited. My go to student dish was a pasta made with a tin of tomatoes and a tin of tuna and I didn´t shout it from the rooftops.

2. The Texture was a little strange, the word claggy comes to mind. The sauce was more like an emulsion, or as if raw eggs had been stirred through it. There was a slight citrusy tang to it which I can only presume came from the tomatoes, as I had ignored the optional suggestion of adding lemon zest, ( original recipe ) which are not so sweet at this time of year.This leads me on to my next point.....
3. Seasonality of the Dish. The one aspect of this dish that initially gave me pause was the tomatoes, given the time of year. On the one hand, I prefer fresh tomatoes during the summer when they’re at their peak, but on the other, I don’t think many people will notice much of a difference in the taste of this overall recipe given the assertiveness of the feta.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this dish wash created in Finland where daylight hours are very short, so fresh cherry tomatoes must be imported. Except for more southern European countries the same problem will occur with seasonal availability. I am averse to using produce that is not in season locally. So when push comes to shove this is really a summer dish. Basil is certainly not available except in the summer months, so I used rocket leaves in their place without detracting from the dish.

4. The Mediterranean diet.This recipe fits perfectly into the mediterranean style of eating. Pasta meals are central to the Mediterranean Diet, not only because they are tasty, inexpensive, and easy meals to prepare, but also because they are the perfect way to highlight and complement many of the other healthy foods in this diet. 5.Playing around with the flavours. I added more than just tomatoes and feta. Quartered shallots will get the dish nice and jammy, and smashed garlic infuses the olive oil. Like spice? Throw in a ton of crushed red pepper flakes. Got thyme? Got Oregano? Add a couple sprigs for an earthy touch.

 
6. Adding pasta water helps. A scoop of pasta water will help stretch your sauce to coat your pasta more smoothly and generously.

• cherry tomatoes – the sweeter the better! There are so many types of mini tomatoes these days, from strawberry to grape to on the vine to heirloom. I used classic cherry tomatoes on the vine.
• Feta – you’ll want to get the best quality Greek feta since it’s the main flavor of the dish. Grab a block of feta, the kind that comes in a brine, not the crumbles.
• olive oil – most of the recipes I’ve seen call from anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of olive oil. I went with 1/2 cup, you want enough to coat the tomatoes and feta while having a bit of oil pool at the bottom of your baking dish so the tomatoes are essentially doing a tomato confit type thing. Too little olive oil and your tomatoes will end up drying out.
• pasta – you can use any shape you like, I went with farfalle.
• garlic – a couple cloves of minced garlic are mixed in and the residual heat of the tomatoes mellows the sharpness out while still giving you a huge hit of garlicky goodness.
• basil or rocket– fresh basil and tomatoes are perfect pairing, but as I said I used rocket leaves and they paired very well with the other flavours in the dish.If I make the dish again in the summer I will use basil.

Baked feta and cherry tomato pasta

3-4 servings

300g cherry or grape tomatoes
1 shallot, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt
Crushed red pepper flakes
1 (200g) block feta
3 sprigs thyme

Sprinkling of  oregano
150g pasta
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large ovenproof baking dish, combine tomatoes, shallot, garlic, and most of the olive oil. Season with salt and red pepper flakes and toss to combine.
Place feta into centre of tomato mixture and drizzle top with remaining olive oil. Scatter thyme and oregano over tomatoes. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until tomatoes are bursting and feta is golden on top.
Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve ½ cup pasta water before draining.
To skillet with tomatoes and feta, add cooked pasta, reserved pasta water, and lemon zest (if using) to skillet and stir until completely combined. Garnish with basil before serving.

 

The predominant flavours of this pasta are feta and tomatoes, it’s practically a two ingredient pasta. If you’re not a huge feta fan, you can definitely use another cheese – baked brie, fresh mozzarella, cream cheese, or ricotta would be good substitutes.