- Baked Feta pasta has become a worldwide viral trend.
Here's why.
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Hey everybody, it's Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com.
Today, we're making a creamy baked feta pasta.
This is so easy, like ridiculously easy
and it's crazy delicious.
Here's our spin on the famous feta pasta.
We'll start with some quick prep.
I'm using eight ounces of asparagus,
trim off the ends and cut it into bite sized pieces.
Next peel and finely mince four garlic cloves.
I find that if you smash the garlic first
with the blunt side of your knife, it's much easier to peel.
You'll use half of the garlic for the pasta bake
and the other half you'll add later.
We're very serious about our garlic around here. (laughs)
We love it, and it really makes this dish.
Make sure you preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
and you'll need a nine by 13 casserole dish.
And I will link to the one I'm using in the notes.
You'll also need two pints of cherry or grape tomatoes.
It's about four cups of tomatoes.
Add your tomatoes to the casserole dish,
along with your prepared asparagus.
Here's a great tip.
If you prefer to add a protein to this pasta bake,
you can leave out the asparagus and replace it
with about a pound of chicken tenders instead.
Pour one third cup of extra virgin olive oil
over your veggies, along with half of your minced garlic.
Season that with a quarter teaspoon of salt
and half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
I do go light on the salt because the feta cheese
adds plenty of flavor.
Toss your veggies until they're coated with olive oil.
And this mixture already smells amazing.
Now create a space in the center
and place eight ounces of Feta cheese, right in the middle.
You can use crumbled feta,
but a block of Feta will give you creamier results.
Drizzle a tablespoon of extra Virgin olive oil
over your cheese alone with a sprinkle of black pepper.
Now bake that in the center of a preheated oven
at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes
until the tomatoes start to burst.
About halfway through the baking time,
I'll start cooking my pasta.
Bring a large pot of water to boil,
add a generous amount of salt,
along with eight to 10 ounces of pasta.
I'm using penne pasta.
You can use a variety of different pastas
but short pasta is like penne, rigatoni,
fusilli, cavatappi and similar ones work best.
Cook the pasta until al dente
according to the package instructions and make sure
to stir it a few times to prevent it from sticking.
This next part is super important.
Reserve half a cup of hot pasta water,
then drain the rest of your pasta.
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There's no need to rinse the pasta
because we want the sauce to stick to the noodles.
All right, our bake has been in the oven
for about 30 minutes.
You can see those tomatoes have bursted and gotten juicy
and it's time to take it out of the oven
and add our finishing touches.
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(laughs) Ooh!
I am getting so excited because it's so easy.
It's almost done.
So as soon as it comes out of the oven,
you wanna add the rest of that minced garlic
and about a quarter cup of finely chopped parsley.
You can also use basil if you want to,
but I always have parsley on hand.
You wanna add it while the mixture is still hot,
so then it kind of partially cooks
the garlic and the parsley.
Give that a quick stir and then mash up the cheese
and it forms the most delicious sauce.
You wanna just continue mashing that cheese
into the olive oil until it's well incorporated
and make sure, make sure you do not skimp on that olive oil
because it helps form the base of the sauce.
One of the things I love about that,
this is a cheese sauce and not a heavy cream sauce
is it reheats well, so it doesn't separate
and become buttery like creamy sauces do,
if you're lucky enough to have leftovers
because this disappears fast.
Aw look at that creamy, saucy and so good
and the pasta's going to soak up some of that cheesy sauce.
It is amazing.
I'm telling you, there's a reason this is so popular.
Try it and you'll fall in love.
And if you guys try different variations, let me know.
'cause I'm completely hooked on this pasta.
True story.
Okay. All right.
Once the sauce is incorporated,
we're gonna add that hot cooked pasta.
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Ooh, still steaming.
Yum! (laughs)
My mouth is already watering for this.
This looks so good.
It smells amazing too.
Seriously, the easiest way to make
a super rich flavored sauce for pasta,
just use feta cheese.
It's brilliant.
And this is so satisfying on its own
because it has tons of veggies already in it,
but it's really good paired with just about any protein,
chicken, steaks, seafood.
It's delicious, or you can pair it
with a green salad if you want a lighter side.
Okay. That looks so amazing.
All right once the noodles are evenly coated,
it's ready to serve and here's my secret weapon
for making this pasta even creamier
because the noodles absorb some of that liquid.
Add some of that reserved hot pasta water
right over the noodles and it'll get even saucier,
I'm telling you.
Try this.
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Ohh, yes. (laughs)
Told yeah! (laughs)
Super creamy.
So yummy.
Okay, I can't wait any longer.
Let's do this taste test.
Load it up.
Okay, big portion for me.
Come on.
I worked not so very hard to make this. (laughs)
It's really so easy
and it looks like a fancy restaurant pasta.
Oh, okay.
Here we go, here we go, here we go.
I'm excited.
All right, get a little bit of everything. (laughs)
Get in my belly.
That's what I'm talking about.
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Mm hm hm.
Mm!
Mm.
This tastes like fancy pasta, (laughs) but it's so easy.
Mm, when I first made this pasta,
I worried that the feta cheese would make it too salty,
but it's so balanced and perfect.
Such rich amazing flavor just from feta cheese,
who would've thought? (laughs)
Also I love how the tomatoes just burst in your mouth
when you bite into them.
So juicy.
It's kind of like a tomato Alfredo sauce, delicious.
And then the asparagus, we add it
because my daughter loves asparagus.
It's her favorite.
And my son loves the tomatoes.
Yes, our family loves this.
It reheats well, so easy, quick, delicious.
Whoops. There goes my tomato. (laughs)
I guess I have to eat the whole thing. (laughs)
I hope this becomes a new favorite for you.
I'm gonna go enjoy the rest of this
and we'll see you in our next video.
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