I have to say that I was a bit surprised the famous Tiktok feta pasta bake became as large as it did, when in my opinion it’s so boring. That’s for from saying it isn’t tasty, but for something to get so blown up in the media I expected…more. So, I decided to make a better than tiktok feta pasta version using a few more ingredients.
The original version is quite simple, just a brick of feta cheese surrounded by cherry tomatoes, lightly seasoned, and drizzled in olive oil. Well, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but why not kick it up a notch. My recipe adds some Italian sausage, roasted/caramelized garlic, shallots, and seasonings.
Here are some other pasta dishes you might like:
- Rainbow Orzo Pasta Salad
- Paccheri With Sausage And Leeks
- Chicken And Sun-dried Tomato Pasta
- Tequila Chicken Penne Pasta
Making The Famous TikTok Feta Pasta
So here’s the deal. This is essentially a pasta bake, but you bake everything before adding the pasta. Using your favorite roasting dish place a 250 gram block of feta cheese right in the center. I actually used bryndza which is a Slovak cheese popular in Eastern Europe that is similar to feta, but way funkier (in my opinion). If you like funky cheeses you can try to find this one, otherwise stick to the traditional feta.
Surround the cheese brick with around 20 cherry tomatoes, two shallots thickly sliced, two Italian sausages hand crumbled, and a bulb of garlic with the top cut off. Drizzle everything with olive oil and sprinkle over salt, freshly cracked black pepper, dry oregano, red chili flakes, and fennel seed.
Bake in an oven at 175 Celsius for 40 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of bake time you can begin to boil 200 grams of penne pasta according to package instructions. Remove from the oven and pull out the entire garlic bulb. Remove the cloves from the skin.
Strain the pasta and add directly to the roasting dish. Smash the roasted garlic with the flat of a knife and reintroduce to the dish as well. Also add in about 100-200 grams of baby spinach (it really depends on how much you like spinach, this recipe is far from finnicky). Use some tongs to mix everything up into a nice creamy pasta dish.
The tomatoes should be super tender and basically collapse as you stir, which infuses the sauce with a nice bit of acidity. The residual heat should wilt the spinach, and the seasonings and sausage really tie the rest of this upgraded TikTok pasta dish together.
Better Than TikTok Baked Feta Pasta
Equipment
- Roasting / Casserole Dish
Ingredients
- 250 grams Feta Cheese I used Bryndza which is like a funkier feta, you can too if you can find it.
- 200 grams Penne Pasta
- 20 Cherry Tomatoes
- 2 large Shallots thickly sliced
- 2 Italian Sausages uncased and hand crumbled
- 1 bulb Garlic top sliced off, but skin left on
- 100 grams Spinach or more if you really like spinach.
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil or more if you feel like it
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- 1/2 tsp Oregano dried
- 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds optional
- Red Chili Flakes to taste
Instructions
- In a roasting dish place the cheese in the center. Surround the cheese with the tomatoes, shallot, sausage, and garlic bulb in that order.
- Drizzle the entire thing with the olive oil and sprinkle over evenly all the seasonings.
- Place in an over at 175 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 40 minutes.
- In the last 10 minutes of baking, begin to boil the penne pasta according to package instructions.
- When the 40 minutes are up, pull the dish from the oven. Remove the garlic cloves from the skin and smash with the flat of a knife. Strain the pasta and add directly to the baking dish. Also add the garlic back in. Finally add as much spinach as you wish. Toss everything with a set of tongs to create a homogenous sauce coating the cooked penne pasta.
Notes
