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Trader Joe's Baked Feta Pasta

Easy★ 4.8Yields: 4 servings

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Trader Joe's Baked Feta Pasta

The Trader Joe's Baked Feta Pasta. The recipe that broke TikTok, crashed grocery store feta supplies worldwide, and made every food blogger on earth post the same damn recipe within a 72-hour window back in 2021. You probably already know about it. Your mom probably already made it. Your coworker Brenda definitely brought it to the office potluck and talked about it for six weeks straight. But here's the thing: it went viral for a reason. It's actually really, really good. A whole block of feta cheese gets roasted with cherry tomatoes until everything is blistered and melty and falling apart, then you smash it all together with hot pasta and it becomes this creamy, tangy, tomatoey sauce that has absolutely no business being this good with this little effort. We're making the whole thing with Trader Joe's ingredients because TJ's cherry tomatoes are cheap as hell, their feta blocks are solid, and you're already there buying lentils for that bruschetta dip anyway. The only real move I'm making here that most recipes skip is adding Trader Joe's Garlic Spread Dip to the sauce at the end. It melts right in and adds this roasted garlic creaminess that pushes the whole thing over the edge. Every person who has eaten this at my house has said some version of 'wait, that's IT?' Yes. That's it. A block of cheese, some tomatoes, and an oven. Welcome to the future of not trying. Let's fucking go.

Ingredients

2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes (about 24 oz total)
1 (8 oz) block Trader Joe's Feta Cheese (the block, not the crumbled kind)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lb pasta (any short pasta works, penne, rigatoni, fusilli)
1 tbsp Trader Joe's Garlic Spread Dip (optional but highly recommended)
Fresh basil for topping
Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1
Preheat and arrange
Preheat your oven to 400°F. Pour the cherry tomatoes into a large baking dish (9x13 works great). Nestle the block of feta right in the center of the tomatoes like it's a cheese island in a tomato ocean. Scatter the smashed garlic cloves around. Drizzle everything generously with olive oil. Hit the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and the red pepper flakes.
2
Bake until blistered
Slide the whole thing into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. You're looking for the tomatoes to be burst open and jammy, the feta to be golden on top and completely soft inside, and the garlic to be tender and caramelized. If your tomatoes aren't blistered enough at 35 minutes, hit the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Watch it like a hawk though because the broiler goes from 'perfect' to 'charcoal' in about 45 seconds.
3
Cook the pasta while you wait
While the feta and tomatoes are doing their thing, boil your pasta in very salty water. Cook it one minute short of the package directions because it's going to finish in the sauce. Reserve about a cup of the starchy pasta water before draining. That pasta water is liquid gold. Don't you dare dump it all down the drain.
4
Smash and combine
When the baking dish comes out of the oven, use a fork to smash the feta into the tomatoes. Add the Garlic Spread Dip if you're using it. Mash and stir until it forms a creamy, chunky sauce. Dump the hot drained pasta directly into the baking dish and toss everything together. Add splashes of pasta water until the sauce is silky and coats every piece of pasta. Season with more salt and pepper to taste.
5
Finish and demolish
Tear fresh basil over the top, give it one more drizzle of olive oil if you're feeling it, and serve straight out of the baking dish because doing dishes is for people with more ambition than us. Eat it hot. Eat it fast. Try not to burn the roof of your mouth but honestly it's worth the sacrifice.

Baker's Notes

Use the BLOCK of feta, not the crumbled kind. The pre-crumbled stuff has potato starch coating it to prevent clumping and it doesn't melt the same way. You need a solid block that's going to get golden on the outside and turn into hot cheese lava on the inside.
Don't skip the pasta water. I know I sound like every cooking show host who ever lived but the starch in that water is what turns this from 'feta chunks on pasta' into 'creamy feta sauce on pasta.' It emulsifies everything. Use it.
The TJ's Garlic Spread Dip addition is my personal contribution to this recipe and I stand behind it fully. It's basically roasted garlic and oil in a jar and when you stir it into the hot smashed feta it adds a depth of flavor that makes people think you actually know what you're doing.
This reheats surprisingly well. Add a splash of water or milk when you microwave it because the pasta absorbs the sauce as it sits. Day-old baked feta pasta eaten standing over the stove at midnight is a top-tier experience.
If you want to make this even more aggressive, crumble some of Trader Joe's Italian Style Chicken Sausage on top. Protein boost and flavor bomb.

Nutrition

Calories

520

Fat

24g

Carbs

58g

Protein

18g

Sugar

6g

Serving

1/4 recipe

Notes

“The recipes are good. The language is bad. You're welcome.” - fuckingdelicious.co

FAQ

Why did this go so viral?

Because it's stupid easy and it actually delivers. Most viral recipes are either way too complicated or they taste like disappointment. This one is genuinely five ingredients, one baking dish, and it tastes like a creamy tomato pasta from a restaurant that charges $22 for it. It hit at the exact right moment when everyone was stuck at home and needed a win.

Can I use a different cheese?

You can use goat cheese and it's also incredible, just a tangier and creamier result. Burrata works if you add it at the end instead of baking it. Don't use mozzarella. It gets stringy and weird and won't melt into a sauce. Feta is feta for a reason here.

My feta didn't get golden on top. What happened?

Your oven probably runs cool or the feta was sitting too low in the tomato juices. Next time, make sure the feta block is sitting up above the tomato line, and if it's still not browning after 35 minutes, hit it with the broiler on high for 2-3 minutes. Keep the oven light on and watch it. Broilers are psychopaths with zero patience.

Can I add vegetables to this?

Roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, or olives all work great tossed in with the tomatoes before baking. Spinach is good stirred in at the end with the hot pasta so it wilts. Don't add anything with too much water content like zucchini or it'll make the sauce watery.

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