Name: Baked Feta Pasta (Gluten-Free)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 2 pints cherry tomatoes; 1/3 cup avocado oil; 3 cloves garlic (minced); ½ tsp sea salt; ¼ tsp fresh cracked black pepper; 8 ounce block feta cheese; 1 Tbsp dried oregano; 8 ounces gluten-free pasta; ¼ cup fresh basil (chopped, or more to taste); 1/4 cup pesto sauce

Gluten-Free Baked Feta Pasta is an incredibly creamy, rich, mouth-watering experience! If you’re into pasta, tomatoes, or feta, you’ll go bonkers over this easy TikTok feta pasta recipe!

Baked Feta Pasta with Pesto Sauce - that baked feta recipe from TikTok with a few changes. Rich, creamy, amazing pasta!

Baked Feta Pasta has made waves in the social media world over the last couple of months. Although I’m typically a skeptic when it comes to food trends, I had to give this one a whirl.

And I’m so happy I did, because it went viral for a reason! The pasta is so flavorful and loaded with flavor and the fact that it is so fun and easy to make makes it extra attractive.

In case you haven’t seen this all over the internet, I’ll tell ya everything you need to know. Cherry tomatoes and feta cheese are baked in a casserole dish with some olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, and garlic.

Once the feta is nice and gooey and the tomatoes are soft and juicy, this mixture gets stirred and mashed to form a sauce. Cooked pasta noodles are then stirred into the sauce, along with some fresh basil (and olives if you like them!). The result? Bliss.

Baked Feta Pasta Ingredients:

What you need to make baked feta pasta is cherry tomatoes, a block of feta cheese (not to be confused with the feta that comes crumbled in a little tub), olive oil or avocado oil, sea salt, black pepper, garlic, pasta noodles, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes if you like a little heat.

Some people have been adding canned or jarred olives to their baked feta pasta – use any olives you like – black, green, kalamata, etc.

The way I see it, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and/or artichoke hearts would also be amazing in this pasta. Certainly not mandatory, but bonus points for sure.

What Is Different About THIS Recipe?:

Because I couldn’t possibly make the same exact pasta that came directly from TikTok and Instagram, I changed up a couple of things.

First, I made it gluten-free (because I eat GF) using brown rice pasta noodles. I also halved the amount of pasta, effectively doubling the amount of sauce to pasta from the original recipe. Which, lemme just tell you right now, was the best decision I’ve made in months.

I also added pesto sauce, because I truly believe pesto belongs in every nook and cranny. Second best decision I’ve made in months. 😉

One more thing: I use avocado oil because that’s the only oil I cook with, but the original method calls for extra virgin olive oil. If you love the flavor of olive oil, I bet it does great things for the pasta!

What Does Baked Feta Pasta Taste Like?

The way we make it in this recipe, the pasta turns out otherworldly creamy, rich, and tangy. Like orders of magnitude creamier than you could imagine. You also get a fresh, delightful herbiness from the fresh basil and even more so from the pesto sauce.

If you prefer your pasta on the lighter end (less creamy/rich/decadent), use 1 pound of pasta instead of 8 ounces to double the pasta and lessen the ratio of sauce to pasta.

I will say, because both feta and cherry tomatoes have a tang to them, the pasta does turn out very tangy. This is something I enjoy, but if you aren’t into very tangy food, consider reducing the amount of cherry tomatoes and/or adding a little cream or gruyere cheese to offset the tanginess.

Can I Add Chicken?:

Heck. YES! Because the recipe is already so easy, I figure you may as well just add rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken that has already been cooked rather than incorporating raw chicken. The next time I make this pasta, I intend to add either rotisserie or roast chicken to get that protein right in there.

How to Make Baked Feta Pasta:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Transfer the cherry tomatoes to a 9-inch or larger casserole dish, and toss them in a couple tablespoons of the avocado oil. Stir in the dried oregano and minced garlic.

Place the block of feta cheese on top of the tomatoes and sprinkle everything with sea salt and pepper. Pour the rest of the avocado oil over everything (note: be sure to pour it over the feta to ensure the feta doesn’t burn while baking).

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the tomatoes are very juicy and have burst open.

While the tomatoes and feta are baking, cook the pasta noodles. Once cooked, strain them and set aside until ready to use.

Remove the tomatoes and feta from the oven and use a fork or spoon to mash and stir the feta and tomatoes together, forming a chunky sauce.

Pour the cooked pasta noodles into the casserole dish with the sauce, along with the fresh basil and pesto sauce. Stir everything together until well-combined. Taste the pasta for flavor and add more sea salt and/or pepper to taste.

Serve and enjoy!

One may want to consider doing a twice baked situation by sprinkling your favorite cheese(es) on top of the pasta and putting the casserole dish bake in the oven to allow it to melt and become extra amazing. I believe I’ll be doing this on my next round in addition to adding chicken!

That’s it! This is how you make the baked feta pasta from TikTok and Instagram for your culinary enjoyment. Let me know what you think!

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