Tik Tok Pasta

Scrolling through insta the other day and I see Dawn O’Porter has posted something of a recipe. Food is not her usual type of post so I have a closer look - she must have impressed herself.

The Rage - why had I not seen this sooner! Only an hour before, I had been staring a pack of feta that was going off the next day and as I had a tub of cherry tomatoes I had decided to make a nice tartlet for lunch. BUT …. at the last minute I decided to waver off the usual path and try to ramp it up a notch and instead of just making the tart, flat in the oven … I had fished my Yorkshire Pudding tray from the back of the press and decided to see if I could make the tart as a sort of a cup. I took photos of the results and let me tell you they look fabulous.

Let me also tell you that photos are misleading! There was too much pastry, it didn’t cook properly and it was all just very annoying. Thankfully I had enough of everything left to just make a normal tartlet and get on with my day.

So anyway - back to Ms O’Porter and her post. Hadn’t she just made a recipe she found online in some kind of viral video movement and the key ingredients were the tub of cherry tomatoes and a block of feta cheese. And she was saying that she just stuck them in the oven and that after 30m minutes and some ‘pass level stirring’ and the addition of some pasta shells she was having the dinner of dreams! I shook my head with disappointment as I scrubbed baked on pastry off my Yorkshire Pudding tray and wondered when I’d ever cook a roast beef for friends or family again and let a wave of lockdown #3 sadness pass over me.

But yesterday I managed to get to ‘town’ and stock up before the Beast From the East arrives to further mess up an already dire situation and so I fired in a block of Feta and a tub of Cherry Tomatoes to my trolley. Well - actually I had to visit 3 shops for the Feta but I took this as a good sign …. the recipe having gone viral must be proving very popular and every home in Connemara was clearly making this prior to watching another singer being Unmasked on the strangest yet most compelling show in years!

Once home, I set off to find this recipe online and trace its origins - there were a few deviations even with the basic recipe … and for something so easy there seemed to be a bit of opening and closing the oven door to add ingredients, changes to the oven temperature and the garlic level swung from 1 to 6 cloves …. So I finally decided to just stick with the basics and do it my way - no adding ingredients half way through and no oven changes.

So here is what I did last night and when I make it again I’ll add the recipe properly.

200 G Block of Feta

500g Little tomatoes in a tub

4 Large Cloves Garlic - crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon Thyme

1/2 Teaspoon Chilli Flakes

Lots of Black Pepper

A Bit of Salt.

400 g bag of Pasta Shells

1 tablespoon pasta water

I popped the tomatoes (whole) into the baking dish and sprinkled them with the crushed garlic, black pepper, salt, chilli flakes and a tablespoon of olive oil. I stirred it all around and then placed the block of feta in the middle. I poured another tablespoon of oil over everything and put some more pepper on the cheese.

I gave it around 35 minutes in the oven at 180 - now in fairness I took it out and looked at it once because I was curious and it was my first time … but you need the tomatoes to be bursting and the cheese to be melting and even going little brown before its cooked.

Before putting the pasta in - I added a tablespoon of pasta water to the mixture and stirred the tomatoes and cheese to a mess. Pasta water is a very important ingredient in most pasta dishes - especially the simple ones! Then I added most of the pasta but not all - I just decided by the look of it when I had enough.

I have to say this was delicious! It really was - and as easy as anything. I actually served it with grated parmesan on the side and garlic bread. Can’t say the parmesan added much - although I’ve heard people raving about it in comments on various posts for this recipe.

I’m going to make it again - I’ll try it a bit differently to see how other ingredients work - but if you are making it yourself you will need at least all the measurements of garlic and herbs I’ve used as it could be quite bland.

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