Unnifeta Pasta

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Unnifeta pasta is a pasta made with a sauce made from baked feta cheese and cherry tomatoes.It was supposedly created by Finnish blogger named Jenni Häyrinen in 2019 and it also led to a feta cheese shortage in Finland because EVERYONE was making it!! I mean how cool is that???

The pasta saw another round of viral acclaim on Tiktok in 2020. Having no access to Tiktok anymore thanks to the move(Yes we have moved and that is for another day!!) I had no clue about it till it slowly moved to insta in 2021. Of course I had to attempt it but there is a funny story to that as well. The recipe called for mainly a block of feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. Simple right? Just pop into a grocery store, pick up or order online. Or so I thought but no, it wasn't as simple. Feta cheese wasn't something you just pick off the shelf in a local market and online said I had to wait for a few days till they sourced it. So off I went to this store that stocks 'imported' goods and nearly cried(tears of joy) when I saw 3 Cows and Al Marai and cried some more(tears of despair) when I saw the price tag attached to it. Anyhoo, picked up a tiny 3 cows block that would have probably fetched me far more things for that price and went around looking for cherry tomatoes which again is supposedly not a common commodity.

Found it tucked in another supermarket(my third attempt) and it was supposedly flown all the way from Spain.At this point I was wondering if I had made a mistake in wanting to do this but I was also determined so this when determination took over the naysaying brain. I gave up on the basil though because there was no way I was going to go to yet another grocery store to look for it and picked up a pack of Italian spices instead which had a few bits of dried basil amongst other herbs. What followed was a beautiful amalgamation of flavours. Considering S picked up the bowl to scrape off the last bits of pasta,I would say this was a super hit. Will I consider making it again? Well.....sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to diss a brie???Erm... maybe when a block of feta doesn't cost an arm and leg amongst other assorted body parts!!



Ingredients:

A block of feta cheese: 500gm
Cherry tomatoes: 200 gm
Garlic: 6 cloves crushed
Italian spices: to taste
Salt : to taste
Olive Oil: enough to drizzle 
Pasta of choice, about 2 cups cooked al dente and drained(reserve water)

Method:
-Preheat oven to 200C
-Place feta block in the middle of your baking dish and arrange cherry tomatoes around it.Drizzle evenly with olive oil. Add crushed garlic, salt and the Italian spices.
-Bake in the oven till the feta turns slightly brown. and the tomatoes have burst.Took me about 20 minutes.
-Take out the dish and stir the mixture until the feta turns nice and creamy and he tomatoes have blended in.
-Add the pasta and toss. If you find it too dry, add the reserved water.
-Sprinkle some more Italian spices according to taste if needed.
-Enjoy!!

                                                                                                                                     -Vive Valeque ❤️





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