This baked feta pasta with cherry tomatoes is a quick and easy dish coated in creamy feta pasta sauce bursting with juicy tomato flavor! Sprinkled with fresh herbs, this low-key, basically hands-off dish comes together in minutes.
Love easy pasta recipes? You’ll love this shrimp scampi and this classic lasagna too!
Table of contents
Pasta with Baked Feta and Cherry Tomatoes
If you haven’t yet, you have got to check out this tiktok baked feta pasta dish viral recipe and find out what all the hype is about. Learning a new, incredibly delicious main dish that takes so little time and effort is never a bad idea. Jump on this bandwagon with me, you won’t be sorry! Hint – it is worth the rave reviews and then some!
Trying this dish seemed inevitable. Besides, I love feta, tomatoes are yum and pasta is a no-brainer, so why wouldn’t I enjoy this? I took this simple concept and ran with it. And oh my goodness, it was amazing and ridiculously easy!
What is baked feta pasta?
This recipe sounds as if it might be a baked pasta dish, but it’s actually not. You do, however, bake the sauce, if you can believe it. You place a block of feta in the middle of a bed of cherry tomatoes that have been tossed in a bit of oil and light seasoning. It then gets baked until the feta turns nice and soft, and the tomatoes are cooked down to their juiciest form.
It gets stirred together creating one of the creamiest, deliciously cheesy, sauces. You then toss in your cooked pasta and dinner is served. A crazy simple, yet spectacular, pasta dish. It is SO GOOD!
Why you will love this recipe
- Quick and easy which is perfect on busy nights and lazy nights.
- Kid-friendly so you know they’ll be asking for seconds.
- Simple ingredients including some you already have in your kitchen.
- Can serve a crowd in pinch and it is a showstopper.
- Easy clean up because you bake and serve out of the same dish.
- Tastes amazing especially if you love all things feta!
- Similar to this meatless baked ziti, another easy, cheesy, pasta dish.
Ingredients
- Feta cheese block – A firm cheese that has been brined which gives it a lovely saltiness.
- Cherry tomatoes – Smaller than your average tomatoes and have a concentrated tomato flavor. You could also opt for juicy grape tomatoes.
- Olive oil – I use extra virgin olive oil but use any variety to coat the tomatoes prior to baking.
- Fresh Garlic – An aromatic that will add immense flavor. Fresh minced garlic cloves is my favorite but use jarred minced garlic if you prefer.
- Dried Italian seasoning – A simple seasoning blend that is a perfect pairing with feta and tomato.
- Salt & Black Pepper – Salt is used to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients and black pepper adds its own.
- Penne pasta – Can definitely use any kind of pasta shapes you have on hand like bowtie pasta, elbow noodles, shells or even linguine.
- Optional – Red pepper flakes, chopped basil leaves, freshly grated parmesan.
How to Make this Baked Pasta Recipe
This simple dish comes together in about 30 minutes!
Step 1: Preheat the oven and place cherry tomatoes in a casserole dish. Toss in olive oil, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Red pepper flakes as well, if you desire.
Step 2: Place feta block in the middle of the baking dish between the tomatoes, pushing the tomatoes to the sides. Drizzle the remaining olive oil over the feta cheese.
Step 3: Place in oven to bake. In the meantime, cook and drain pasta as per package directions.
Step 4: Remove cooked tomatoes and feta from the oven. Using a fork, mash the feta and tomatoes to create the creamy sauce. Then, add the pasta back into the tomato mixture and toss to combine thoroughly.
Garnish with fresh basil, fresh parsley, red pepper flakes and/ or parmesan cheese if desired.
Variations
Make a gluten-free version. Because this dish is customizable you can swap regular pasta for any gluten-free pasta. Brown rice, quinoa, chickpea pastas or low-carb spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles are all great options.
Make it a dip! Skip the pasta all together and use this incredible sauce as a dip for garlic bread, crusty bread, or even crackers.
Put your own spin on it by adding other vegetables, like baby spinach, mushrooms, onions, red bell peppers, kalamata olives, etc. in when you toss the tomatoes in the olive oil.
Toss is cooked chicken or ground beef for a heartier protein-packed version.
Add ½ cup of white wine.
Tips
- Use 2 pints of cherry tomatoes if you’d like a deeper tomato flavored feta sauce.
- You can use either pints of cherry tomato or grape tomato, or a mix of both.
- Substitute ½ teaspoon of dried basil and ½ teaspoon dried oregano if you don’t have Italian seasoning on hand.
- Roast your garlic ahead of time to give it a whole other layer of delicious garlic flavor.
- This dish is simple with so few ingredients, so try and use the freshest high-quality ingredients that you can.
FAQ’s
f you want a smooth creamy texture, stick with the block. You can use crumbled feta but you may find it doesn’t melt as easily.
Sure! You will get a bit of a different flavor and not have the signature salty brine, but you can definitely use it if you prefer. It will blend nicely just make sure to decrease the cooking time.
If you like this recipe, please leave us a comment and rate the recipe below. You can also find us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram!
Baked Feta Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounce feta cheese block
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound penne pasta
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Optional Garnishes
- Fresh chopped basil leaves
- Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
- Place cherry tomatoes in a baking dish
- Add ¼ cup olive oil, garlic Italian seasoning, salt and pepper over tomatoes and toss to coat well. (add red pepper flakes now if desired)
- Place the feta block in middle of the tomatoes, pushing the tomatoes to the sides.
- Drizzle the remaining olive oil over feta cheese.
- Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the feta and tomatoes are baking, cook the pasta per the package directions.
- After feta and tomatoes have cooked, remove from dish from oven.
- Using a fork, mash the feta and tomatoes to create the creamy sauce.
- Then, add the pasta back into to the cheese mixture and toss to combine thoroughly.
- Garnish with fresh basil and/ or parmesan cheese if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclosure
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
Tom
Added a few diced sun dried tomatoes and a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon…excellent!
Kori H
amazing! made this and added some salmon as protein, it was a hit during dinner thank you
Sherri
I love that idea! I have added chicken a lot but will have to try salmon!
Fisher
This was very easy and equally tasty. I used 6 cloves garlic, and also roasted broccolini on a separate pan in the oven at the same time as the tomatoes/feta, and then mixed it in with the pasta and sauce at the end.
Vicki J.
I have a question. The ingredients list 1/4 cup of olive oil. Step 3 says add 1/4 cup of olive oil, etc. Step 5 says to drizzle the remaining olive oil over the feta. There is no remaining olive oil as it was all used in step 3. Should the ingredients have listed a larger amount of olive oil?
I have it baking in the oven now. I drizzled a small amount of extra olive oil over the feta. I hope it was enough.
Vicki J.
Made it tonight and it was delicious. I added a little pasta water to the sauce when I added the penne. I will be making it again.
Jerry C.
Hi Sherry. What size dish did you use? A photo shows you used a square baking dish . I have a 8”X8”X2” baking dish. That would seem too small considering that the recipe call for a pound of pasta. Please let me know. Thank you.
CF
Easy vegetarian meal. Follow directions but finished pasta in the oven (convection roast 375 10 mins).
Linda Piffer
I made this for dinner tonight, baking a spaghetti squash alongside the tomatoes and cheese to serve as the “pasta.” My only complaint was that I needed to add 20 minutes to the cooking time for it to be done. Delicious! Simple! I will DEFINITELY make this again.
Jennine Smith
Delicious! I used a combination of cherry and grape tomatoes. For the noodles I used mafalda shape, mostly because because I had a bunch in hand. Definitely great by itself, but next time I may add some sweet Italian sausage, not too sure how that would impact the overall dish.
Sherri
It’s so amazing! I love the idea of the Italian sausage! I have added simple diced chicken I sautéed and loved it as well. 🙂
Murray Dickson
Fabulous recipe BUT….
Could you PLEASE use METRIC MEASUREMENTS, as used in the majority of the civilised world?
Kay
I hope you found a suitable conversion tool. Those of us in the uncivilized United States appreciate the recipe as is.
ApplePie
Thank the gods Americans love themselves, no one else can stand us.