TikTok has become a cooking resource – who knew?! First there was the #wraphack and now there’s this viral feta pasta, made simply by roasting tomatoes and feta with oil and spices for a long time at high heat and tossing with pasta. People have gone nuts. I’m tired of hearing about it, which means you probably are too…so I’m sorry for talking about it now when this trend is already a few weeks old and therefore passé. But I’m making a couple of major changes, like switching out the cheese and not actually using pasta that make this kind of a totally different dish. This is the TikTok pasta…except not at all?
Place a whole bunch of grape tomatoes in a baking dish (leaving enough space to later add your block of cheese), drizzle a bunch of olive oil or avocado oil over the top along with a whole bunch of spices. I used salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, oregano, parsley, and garlic flakes. Toss it all to coat and then make a little well in the middle and place a 4 oz log of goat cheese there. Roast for 40 minutes at 400. When you’ve got about 15 minutes left, cook up some quick-cooking farro according to the package, reserving a bit of the starchy water. (I used one full bag of the Trader Joe’s variety.) Remove the tomatoes/cheese from the oven and stir it all up together, allowing the tomatoes to burst and blend, until it forms a sauce. Add the farro and toss to coat. Depending on how many tomatoes you use, you may or may not need the farro water to thin it out.
We’re talking about cheeses – feta and goat cheese – that have strong, distinctive, tangy flavors. If you like that, you’ll LOVE this dish. If you sort of like that, you’ll still probably really like this dish, just make sure you have a lot of tomatoes in there to balance out the flavor. Also, the more tomatoes, the easier it is to turn it into a true sauce. Farro means this dish won’t be as pretty as the pasta version, but it’s no less tasty. Bottom line: this viral dish works and could not be easier.
Peaches to Apples 