With pasta being the most iconic and celebrated of foods worldwide, the baked feta pasta was a shoo-in for being 2021’s most popular food trend to hit social media airwaves. It’s a breezy recipe for pasta with tomatoes and cheese — probably not worth the hype, but worth the hanker.

Because it’s easy-peasy ya dud. You would have stumbled across TikTok videos, articles or haphazardly heard people speak favourably of the recipe since it blew up in early February — and you can’t blame them. Every time you cook up a dish, it takes forever and the kitchen is turned upside down. But with the TikTok feta pasta recipe, it’s a small slab of feta cheese, ringed generously with tomatoes, all drizzled with olive oil together, in a roasting dish that’s popped in the oven for 40-45 minutes, and mixed with pasta, fresh basil and any other auxiliary topping.

The ingredients involved in baking this wholesome recipe would most probably be at hand in your fridge or pantry; whole feta cheese, a wealth of cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic cloves and salt. And once they’re cooked, mix the feta, garlic and tomatoes and combine with cooked pasta and some fresh herbs. According to MacKenzie Smith’s original recipe, here’s what you need to make TikTok feta pasta:

The original recipe requires one to bake the feta with the tomatoes at 200°C for a half-hour, then turn it up to 220°C for the last 10-15 minutes. But keep an eye out on the dish to avoid burning the garlic, surface of the feta and herbs.