Tik Tok Pasta: Must or Bust?

Cherry tomatoes, a block of feta cheese, and a box of whatever shaped pasta you’d like (go crazy). Now that I have your attention… My mom and I tried the ~famous tik tok pasta~ so you don’t have to, but we really recommend that you do.

For some background: My mom and I have always bonded over food, pasta specifically. We tag each other on foody Instagram posts, we always try new recipes and throw random things from the fridge into a pan to see what amazing pasta we can make for dinner, lunch, afternoon snack, breakfast, whatever. These have been defining moments in my mom and I’s relationship for as long as I can remember. There’s no bonding like that over a pot of boiling water.

My mom and I are slightly rulebreakers when it comes to cooking and we like to put our own twist on recipes, so here goes ~famous tik tok pasta~ the Rebeca and Niure way.

The first modification to our version of this pasta was that instead of using a block of feta cheese we actually used feta cheese crumbles. The recipe calls for a block of feta cheese in the middle of the pan you use and then haphazardly scattered cherry tomatoes around the cheese. My mom and I, being the absolute rebels that we are, haphazardly scattered not only the tomatoes but the feta cheese as well. The second modification was that instead of putting the pan with cheese and tomatoes directly in the oven, we actually began stirring it on the stovetop...now, disclaimer, this one was pretty much a mistake because neither of us had actually read the recipe. But, nonetheless, we stirred the cheese and tomatoes on the stovetop for a bit and then put the pan in the oven for the tomatoes to soften and the cheese to melt. Once our pasta of choice, bowtie, was cooked (we like it al dente but feel free to let that pasta cook for as long as you want) we removed the pan from the oven and dumped our pasta among the now slightly burned tomatoes and creamy cheese.

Another modification is our liberal use of seasoning, my mom and I HATE unseasoned foods and we always add seemingly unconventional spices to our meals. Trying new things never killed anyone right??? So for this pasta, we added your traditional salt and pepper (I’m sorry but if you’re not adding at least some salt and pepper to your food then you are doing something wrong my friend), and here’s where things got a little fun...we added Tuscan spices (to be honest I don’t know what this entails but it made the pasta taste phenomenal), just a pinch of red chili pepper, a classic handful of basil, all bathed in good old olive oil.

If we’re getting technical I’d give our execution of this dish an 8.7/10. Because we started with just melting the tomatoes and cheese on the stop and then put it into the oven our pasta became sort of stuck together. This might’ve been due to execution or having too much pasta. In the future, we will begin to cook the pasta later on in the process. Keep in mind that cooking is a learning process and it’s okay to mess up. Recently, I made snickerdoodle cookies and used baking powder instead of baking soda, and well, my cookies turned into crackers…

Anyways, I definitely think that this pasta is worth it. Tik Tok wasn’t clickbaiting us with this one. This is a good, hearty dish for many occasions such as a date, or a good mother’s day lunch, or even just an afternoon snack if you love pasta that much (I’m not judging don’t worry, pasta is at the top of the nutrition pyramid for me).

When asked about her experience my mother, Niure Damico, said in her own words: “I loved this simple recipe, I gave it my twist sauteeing the ingredients on the stovetop and then moving the skillet to the oven to let the tomatoes soften and the ingredients combine. In the end, the tomatoes could have softened a little more, I guess I was impatient” Ah yes, impatience has no place in the kitchen. She went on to say that “After seeing sooo many pictures everywhere we were feeling some FOMO and felt like we had to try this. And, it was worthy…”

There you have it. My honest review on the feta cheese and tomato pasta from Tik Tok.