Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 395°F (200°C) and refer to the notes for Instant Pot instructions.
- Add cherry tomatoes to a baking dish or cast-iron pan, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and stir until well coated.
- Place the feta block in the center of the dish, drizzle with olive oil, and season with crushed chili flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Bake for 30 minutes until the tomatoes soften and burst, while boiling the pasta in salted water until al dente and reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
- Remove the dish from the oven and incorporate the crushed garlic and chopped fresh basil into the softened feta.
- Mash the cherry tomatoes and blend the feta with the pan ingredients using a spoon or fork, adding sugar if the sauce tastes acidic.
- Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce until thoroughly coated, adding a splash of reserved cooking water if needed to loosen the consistency.
- Garnish with additional chopped fresh basil and serve warm.
Nutrition
Notes
- Reserve some pasta water – this is very important as the pasta water is starchy and perfect for loosening up pasta sauces. I keep it until I serve the pasta as the sauce thickens when it cools down.
- Roast until the cherry tomatoes burst – A big part of the sauce comes from the cherry tomato juices, so you really want the tomatoes to soften and release their juices into the sauce.
- If the tomatoes are acidic, add sugar – every time I cook a tomato-based sauce, I check if the sauce is too acidic and fix that by adding a teaspoon of granulated sugar or honey to balance the flavors.
- If you like onions, thinly slice them and add them to the roasting pan with the tomatoes. Not a fan of basil? Substitute with baby spinach leaves, and let them wilt in the pan with the sauce before serving.
- Serve the baked feta pasta with toasted sourdough bread, extra virgin olive oil, and a simple salad.
- Store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- I used less olive oil (just 2 tablespoons), more pasta a total of 12oz (340g), and added 3 cups of water (in total) to submerge the pasta so it cooks evenly.
- The ingredients were added by this order: olive oil, a single layer of cherry tomatoes, pasta, water, seasonings (sugar, salt, pepper, chili flakes, garlic), the remaining cherry tomatoes, and feta.
- I pressure cooked for 4 minutes (with quick release) which was enough to cook the pasta, the cherry tomatoes burst, and the feta was soft and creamy.
- After the lid was removed, if you feel that there is too much liquid you can discard a little and then mix everything until the sauce is creamy. It will thicken more as it cools and the pasta will absorb a part of the liquid.
- Change things up! Add pieces of chicken and they will cook perfectly just as I did in my Instant Pot chicken mac and cheese. You can also add sausage, chorizo, onion, mushrooms, or just mix in baby spinach leaves at the end.