This is an easy recipe for even the most tense chefs. A block of feta with slather cherry tomatoes, chili and olive oil. Bake in the oven. Mix the cooked pasta, basil and garlic.
Simple was what Finnish food blogger Jenni Haylinen was looking for when he thrived creamy and salty dishes in 2019. “I was really hungry,” she said. “I longed for the grilled feta.”
A similar recipe to Hayrinen's recipe and another Finnish blogger Tiiu Puranen, shared in 2018, prompted the online phenomenon in Finland. However, the recipe may have remained local for Finnish travelers who raved about this trend with American food blogger Mackenzie Smith.
“I remember adding pasta and chewing it,” Smith said. “I was like that: this is really good. Why is this so good?”
In January 2021, Smith uploaded a how-to video of the recipe to Tiktok and Instagram. The coronavirus pandemic has transformed home kitchens into a source of entertainment, with restaurants still being closed or limited services in many places, so cooking at home still dominated many nights.
What happened surprised her: the recipe exploded across the internet, gaining a large number of fans, including food bloggers and AI influencers. Some people claimed it was the best pasta dish they've ever tried. Others said they added it to their weekly dinner rotation. The hype has driven a surge in FETA sales. Shelves in some stores have temporarily been empty, and Feta has become one of the top search terms for Instacart's grocery apps.
Baked Feta has been a Greek appetizer for a long time, so why did the addition of language, penne, or rigatoni encourage such dedication?
“Visually, that's symbolic, right?” Smith said. “It first hits that delicate feta and is pleased.” The dish said that going to a restaurant was a challenge at best, or a twist on comfort food when it is impossible. She said by helping her and others spend difficult times with the social excitement around cooking, “it solidified its place in American culture.”
More than four years later, Smith said the recipe for freshly baked feta pasta is among the most popular on her website.
“It changed my life. I paid off my mortgage. This was just crazy,” she said. Her feelings are complicated by the fact that the recipes aren't hers, and she has been careful to give credit to Finnish creators. “I feel very fortunate to be honest, that I'm a part of it,” she said.
In Finland, Haylinen declared on February 4th it was “Baked Feta Pasta Day.” Each year, she reposses a series of videos of baking dishes, each with a distinctive chunk of feta in a bright nest of tomatoes.
“It somehow felt like it was a shared social experience,” she said. It included one of the fans she thought was the ultimate foodie victory: Gordon Ramsay called the trend “magnetization” in an interview with people in 2022.
“It's one of my biggest accomplishments because I don't think he loves anything,” she said. “I can retire now.”
