A version of this recipe went viral on TikTok and my kids asked me to make it. I figured why not since my herb garden is starting to come in and I needed something to make with my basil and oregano. My experience with such recipes is that you want to follow them closely until you get a feel for how things work. For example, you want to make sure you use goat milk feta as it will melt better than cow milk feta, and don’t use crumbled feta, it will dry out during baking. You also want to use short noodle pasta but the shape is not that important, just please, don’ t use elbow macaroni, that’s insulting. The smaller the cherry tomatoes the better and don’t skimp on the olive oil. Also make sure to retain a least a cup of your pasta water, it will be very starchy and help the sauce stick to the pasta, and while we’re at it, drain your pasta but don’t rinse it and do not add butter to it. One last thing, notice that I call for 10 oz. of pasta, you will probably cook the entire package but start with adding 2/3rds of the cook pasta to the sauce. If think your sauce can coat more, then add more. If you go with the optional sausage, you probably cannot add more pasta.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Mild Italian sausage
- 8 oz. Feta cheese block from goats milk, drained and not crumbly
- 20 oz. Fresh cherry or grape tomatoes, 2-pints
- 10 oz. Pasta – say mezze rigatoni
- 4 oz. Extra virgin olive oil
- 3 Cloves garlic – finely grated or pressed
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves – chiffonade
- 1 cup fresh spinach – roughly cut
- 0.25 tsp Kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Oregano – optional
- Red pepper flakes – optional
Process
- Mise en place – measure and prepare you ingredients prior to starting. To chiffonade your basil, stack the leaves in a single pile and roll them up like a cigar. Slice the roll into thin disks that once unrolled will become strips.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a bowl thoroughly coat the tomatoes with olive oil, Ksalt and pepper by tossing.
- Pour into a 3-quart baking dish and place the feta in the center of the tomatoes. Coat top of cheese with olive oil, then sprinkle with black pepper and optional spices like oregano and red pepper flakes.
- Bake 30 mins until tomatoes have burst and the feta has softened.
- Meanwhile,
- Cook pasta: bring water to a boil, salt generously and add pasta. Cook until al dente (~13mins).
- Drain 4 oz of the pasta water and set aside.
- Mix spinach into pasta before draining, the spinach will instantly wilt.
- Cook sausage while pasta is cooking. Add 1 TBL fennel seeds to sausage as it cooks. Drain grease and set aside.
- If feta is not golden brown on top, increase the heat to 450 degs F, and cook ~10 mins until the tomatoes and feta are golden brown. Keep an eye on things because you don’t want it to burn.
- Remove feta and tomatoes from oven and smash the tomatoes. Stir in garlic until you have a creamy sauce.
- Add the pasta and and half the basil. If the sauce is too thick, add pasta water in steps. The starchy water will help the sauce stick to the pasta.
- Adjust seasoning to taste and top with remaining basil.
- Serve with fresh garlic bread.
