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Baked feta pasta

”Baked feta pasta! Have you already tried this viral hit pasta? I have. Just this morning when I invented it”. With these words I started of the original blog post 1,5 years ago – with a twinkle in my eye. The funny thing is that #uunifetapasta actually turned into a viral hit in Finland and everybody was cooking it. By everybody I mean EVERYBODY! The feta cheese sales went up 300 % here, the shops were running out of baked feta pasta ingredients and by this date the original uunifetapasta recipe post has over 2.7 million views. Finland has 5.5 million inhabitants, to put things into perspective.

Baked feta pasta blog

Baked feta pasta world domination

I have a lot of finnish followers also abroad and my instagram feed @liemessa was floded with baked feta pasta photos from Hawaii to Australia. The baked feta pasta recipe was in finnish, so it wasn’t really available for a boarder audience. Until american blogger and chef @grilledcheesesocial heard of the baked feta pasta from a friend, who’s boyfriend is a finnish chef and translated the recipe. Now the baked feta pasta is going viral across the pond in the States. #uunifetapasta world domination is a joke no more! 😀

EDIT 8.2.2021: Turns out #uunifetapasta is The new TIKTOK pasta and riding a third viral wave after big TikTok users like @grilledcheesesocial and @feelgoodfoodie shared it! The #uunifetapasta fever is global and I’m so happy for it bringing joy to peoples lives in these times. If you share my baked feta pasta recipe on TikTok or Instagram, I would be over the moon if you can credit the original creator of the viral recipe. My profile is @liemessa in both. Thank you! <3

Baked feta tomato pasta

Your new weeknight favourite

So here’s the original baked feta pasta recipe in english! I had another busy day working from home and had to come up with a quick lunch. I love baked feta and thought why not turn it into a pasta sauce! Oven baked feta, way too much olive oil, burning hot chili and soft bursting cherry tomatoes. In the oven they turned into an amazing pasta sauce by itself. Just add fresh basil leaves and italian durum wheat pasta. Nowdays I throw couple of garlic cloves in the baking dish too. Baked feta pasta must have saved hundreds of thousands weeknight meal wonderings – and still does. It’s one of those dishes that you notice cooking weekly once you do it once. There’s no going back – I’ve warned you! 🙂

You can find me on Instagram @liemessa for more deliciousness!

Baked feta pasta food blog

Baked feta pasta

Original #uunifetapasta recipe translated into english

for 4 persons

1 lb / 450 g italian durum wheat pasta
1 block (7 oz / 200 g) greek feta cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 red chili pepper
500 g cherry tomatoes
(4 garlic cloves if you wish)
black pepper
salt
bunch of fresh basil leaves

Pour some olive on the bottom of the baking dish. Place the whole feta block on top. Chop the red chili pepper and add on top of feta cheese. Pour more olive oil on top. Place the cherry tomatoes on the sides and roll around in oil. Grind some pepper and season with pinch of salt.

Bake in 400 F / 200 C for 15 minutes in the middle rack. Turn the heat to 440 F / 225 C, move the dish to the upper rack and use the grilling mode for another 10 minutes. Caution! This might cause the fire alarm to go off, mine does that every time 😀

Cook the pasta al dente according to cooking instructions. If you used cherry tomatoes with stems, remove them. The stems are there merely for the instagrammable look, so plein cherry tomatoes will do fine.

Break the feta a bit and mix with tomatoes. Mix the sauce with pasta and add plenty of basil leaves.

Tip!  Garlic goes well with baked feta pasta. To add garlic cut four garlic cloves in half lenghtwise, toss them in same time as the tomatoes and roll in olive oil.

baked feta pasta recipe
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34 Kommenttia

  • EFLATUN sanoo:

    looks so yummy . I will try it

  • G sanoo:

    Can you use a substitute for feta?

  • Corinne Hopper sanoo:

    Thanks so much for making it available in English. Looks delicious!!!

  • Stephen sanoo:

    Terveisiä sinulle,
    I’m writing in from the desert southwest of America, next to the border with Mexico. Perhaps strange to be a lost suomen pojanpoika here, but I have a question! We have an astonishing variety of peppers and chiles here. It’s a beautiful bounty of delicious options, but it can make recipes from abroad (or sharing our own recipes!) somewhat confusing. For instance, I’ll be making a roasted cream of poblano chile soup to go with fresh whole wheat and dark rye bread that I made yesterday.

    So… Long story short! Can you describe more what you ”red chili pepper” is? It almost looks like a fully ripe fresh jalapeño, a jarred cherry pepper or even something like a red banana pepper in the photo, but I’d like to know what people are using there. Is there a way to either show the whole pepper before chopping it up or (if it’s preserved), the container it comes in.

    Kiitos ja onnea,
    Stephen

    • Kyle Smith sanoo:

      My guess it’s New Mexico chile.

      • Stephen sanoo:

        Why on earth would she be using a New Mexico Green Chile in Finland when many folks in the US don’t even have access to them? Further, she specifically says that it is a RED chili. I live 15 minutes from New Mexico. I have multiple containers of Hatch Green Chile in my freezer and could certainly have just used whatever chile I have on hand. I was asking more specifically about what she was using locally in the recipe.

        • Susanna Koistinen sanoo:

          I think what we usually have in the shops just as red chili in Finland is ripe jalapeno or thai chile. Something like this: https://pixabay.com/fi/photos/chili-pippuri-chili-punainen-4449886/

          We do have several varieties available nowadays in shops, but Suomi isn’t a chile country like Mexico 🙂 I’ve used some smoked chile flakes I happen to have in the cupboard, I don’t think it matters so much. I’d suggest picking a variety that you would imagine using in an hearty oven dish.

    • Sara sanoo:

      The selection of chili peppers for sale in regular stores here in Finland is still rather modest. Usually only varieties such as habanero and jalapeno are specifically mentioned by name – red peppers are just sold as ”mild red chili pepper” or ”red chili pepper”. It is therefore very unlikely that Jenni would be able to tell you what kind of red chili she used, this information is not always provided by retailers. The best information I was able to find is that one of the largest Finnish food retailers sells ”Medina” and ”Fire flame” chilies as ”red chili peppers”. Hope this helps!

  • Cherylynn sanoo:

    I’m really hoping you’ll translate ALL your recipes in English so we can enjoy your recipes too. Thank you for this simple but wonderful recipe.

  • Chase sanoo:

    Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you for translating to English! There is one tiny change I would suggest to the translation, and it is at the start where you add the Olive Oil. The paragraph starts with saying ”add the ’olive’ to the bottom and put the feta on top”. That really confused me at first and would have put actual olives in the recipe rather than olive oil if I wouldn’t have read the finnish version. That could possibly confuse some of the English readers, but now that I think about it, some ripe olives could possibly be a good ingredient to try in the recipe! Thanks again!
    -Chase- AL, USA

  • Nichole sanoo:

    My daughter is making this as we speak! My daughter who is 10 found this recipe on tictok and she is my little chef!

  • Bos sanoo:

    If you use Chrome as your browser you can get a reasonable translation and fix up the goofy bits after. Some things just do not translate well. As an English speaking former resident of Suomi I am pleased that NOW I can have access to some fondly remembered recipes without a day long hassle with a dictionary like the old days. That said, I remembered enough Finnish to list all the ingredients in a recipe except one.
    Kiitos laitat nämä mukavat reseptit. Terve!

  • Ellen sanoo:

    Is it possible to see your website in English?

  • Charlotte sanoo:

    Thanks so much for the recipe – it was delicious.

  • Ovelacq sanoo:

    Hi,
    Wonderful, the whole family enjoyed.
    Our finnish is not that good. Are your other recipees available somewhere in english?

  • Kelly sanoo:

    I just made this recipe tonight though only just now tracked back to your original version. It’s so cool how it took your country by storm? When you say ”1/2 red chili pepper”, what kind of chili is that? It’s some sort of fresh chili or dried? The photo makes it look fresh but I’m still not sure what kind of pepper to look for. I’d really love to try YOUR original version. Thanks!

    • Kyle Smith sanoo:

      My guess it’s a New Mexico chile.

    • Audrey sanoo:

      Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It was absolutely delicious. Simple but rich and full of flavor. I must confess that the sauce was so good I had few spoonfuls before even adding the pasta. I used gemelli, which turned out to be a great idea because the sauce got into every nook and cranny. I think I might make it again this week. But I will bake a crusty French bread to sop all that rich sauce so nothing goes to waste.

  • Brenda Gerhard sanoo:

    This is absolutely fabulous. Too many altered versions on TikTok and the internet. So in love with the original! Thank you for this life-changing recipe!!

  • Robert Woods sanoo:

    Very nice dish – but it is well known in Greece for years and years – sometimes called Saganaki sauce – I have enjoyed it in Parga and also in neighboring Albania with mussels.

    • Stephen sanoo:

      You might want to review those memories… This only resembles the cheese preparation called saganaki in the most superficial way. Though it can (though rarely) be made with sheep’s milk feta, it is traditionally made with graviera, kefalograviera, or kefalotyri. The word ”saganaki” simply refers to the shallow pan used to fry the flour dredged semi-hard yellow cheese in olive oil.

      Tomatoes are not traditional here. Pasta is not traditional here. Peppers are not traditional here. There ARE some recipes (like mussels in Albania) which can be prepared in a saganaki pan, but calling them saganaki is a serious corruption of the Greek dish.

      So, quite literally – pass by on recipes that you clearly have no understanding of –

      Best wishes,
      SJ

      • A sanoo:

        Damn you’re kind of a dick. There’s a way to educate without being pretentious.

  • Elle B. sanoo:

    Prepared tonight with some Aleppo pepper flakes and a sprig of rosemary under the tomatoes. Delicious with penne pasta. Will make again. Thank you for delicious “comfort food.”

  • Robert Woods sanoo:

    Am amazed how superficial the SOME world is – tomatoes cooked or baked with feta is an old traditional Greek combo – I guess Moussakka is the next ’viral’ trend! Btw – might be good to drop the ’viral’ word – hasn’t Covid been enough?

  • Connie Hanson sanoo:

    Hi, this is fabulous. Yes, feta and tomatoes are staples in the Greek cooking. But it is refreshing to have new versions of old stand bys. I’m sad and sorry some feel it necessary to make unkind comments, (Mr. Woods).

  • Robert Woods sanoo:

    What was unkind? I was simply saying that it was just a re-invention of athe same wheel known for decades or centuries. Putting it on Facebook doesn’t produce a variation!’

  • Robert Woods sanoo:

    What was unkind? I simply said this combo is known for decades – if not centuries. Putting it on the infamous Facebook doesn’t produce a ’variation!’ – let’s stop re-inventing the wheel and talk about the ’viral’ effects!

  • Cristina sanoo:

    Made this a few times and it’s DELICIOUS! Used high protein chickpea pasta to be able to enjoy it without overwhelming guilt :))) Added 3 handfuls of spinach too, and some Italian herbs I had hanging around in the cupboard and it turned out amazing <3 Thank you for this recipe, Jenni! 🙂

  • Kaisa Helve sanoo:

    Moi.
    Suomeksi:
    250 g hyvää pastaa esim. Rummo
    200 g fetajuusto (käytin Pirkka Parhaat)
    1 rasia kirsikkatomaatteja

    Englanniksi:
    450g pastaa
    Sama määrä muuta, about.

    Suomeksi 2lle ja Englanniksi 4lle.
    Ok, pastan suhteen mutta eikö feta pitäisi tuplata ja tomaatit myös?

    Luin ohjeen Englanniksi ja mietin…liian vähän fetaa ja tomaatteja joten tuplasin ne ja sitten olinkin sattumalta siis tehnyt oikein. Kaisa

  • Vi sanoo:

    Made this today and it’s the best recipe ever! Thank you!

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