Oven Baked Pasta With Feta and Tomatoes

This recipe is so easy to make, everyone with an oven can do it.

I found the basic recipe about three weeks ago in a facebook recipe group and cooked it since then four times.
It is so incredibly yummy and so so easy to prepare and make. Ah, I forgot: and so versatile in terms of usage of different vegetables and spices.

The first time, I followed the exact recipe I found (which includes feta, tomatoes, fresh garlic, Italian spices, salt, pepper and separately cooked spaghetti pasta, that's all)

The second time I added some chopped zucchini and poured some olive oil over the feta cheese and the vegetables, the pasta was still cooked separately.

The third time, I added the spaghetti and some water directly into the baking dish, realizing that this works very well (the vegetables were the same as the last time)

And the fourth time, while writing this instructable, I changed the zucchini to spring onions (because they were in my fridge and zucchini wasn't) and added some tomato paste.

So delicious!*

*if you like feta and garlic, because their taste dominates the meal :-)

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390°F).
2. Chop the tomatoes into quarts.
3. Cut the spring onion lengthwise and cut into small (half-) rings
4. Peel the garlic cloves.

Ingredients: for 3 persons as a small dinner, or 2 persons as normal dinner

• 250gr Spaghetti pasta
• 180gr feta cheese
• 250gr cherry tomatos
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 thick spring onion
• approx. 2 tbl tomato paste
• 1 tbl of Italian herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano - depending on your preferences)
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
• water

Tools

• sharp cutting knife
• cutting board
• 1 baking dish (big enough to fit in your spaghetti)
• garlic press
• oven gloves

1. Set the pasta into the baking dish
2. Pour enough water into the dish to cover the pasta completely, add some salt.
3. Divide the tomatoes into two parts and add to the side of the pasta.
4. Set the feta cheese onto the spaghetti. (Yes, you can also set the cheese first, but I changed the order unintentionally and so are my pictures...)
5. Spread the spring onions onto the tomatoes.
6. Press the garlic cloves directly onto the feta cheese.
7. Pour some olive oil over the cheese and the vegetables.
8. Spread the tomato paste on both sides onto the vegetables.
9. Sprinkle the herbs over the cheese and add some pepper. Don't add more salt yet, since there is already salt in the water and the cheese is also rich in salt. It is better to taste when the dish is ready and then add maybe some more salt.
10. Last step: If you are using a baking dish that is too short for the spaghetti, like I did, don't forget to add the broken parts also. Best at the beginning with the long pasta, otherwise, if you do like I did, add it at the end and pour some more water, so that they are also covered.

Set it into the middle off the preheated oven at 200°C (~390°F) with top and bottom heat for approx. 25min

Check the pasta after 20min and taste if you like the hardness of the pasta. Add eventually some more water to cover it again.

When the pasta is ready and the cheese is soft, remove the baking dish from the oven and set it onto a coaster or the stove top.

Take a spoon and a fork and carefully mix all the ingredients until you are happy with the mixture. You might add some more water to get a more fluid sauce.

Season the dish with some more salt and pepper.

Voilà, you are ready.

It is creamy and delicious and easy and rich and satisfying and did I mentioned that it is delicious?

Small anecdote:

The recipe for this instructable I made at my parents' kitchen and both of my parents were very skeptical if this could taste well. Pasta in the oven, only a few ingredients, "a lot" of garlic,...

But they both tried and my mum was like "Oh this is surprisingly good, we will have it again soon" and my dad said "It it much better than I expected, with this amount of garlic..." and then he took a second portion of the pasta...