Suggested prep Cacio e Pepe or Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
This semolina spaghetti has serious ped-igree, with durum grown and milled by Arizona’s Hayden Flour Mills, one of the world’s premier producers of the high-protein pasta wheat.
Rouge de Bordeaux Strozzapreti
Suggested prep Duck Ragu or anything bold
Among the densest pastas, Fink says strozzapreti demands a “forceful sauce” to help soak into its chewy contours, like Emmer & Rye’s menu mainstay with confit chicken thigh, butter, and lacto-fermented peppers.
Egyptian Emmer Rigatoni
Suggested prep Pasta Bolognese
Heavily toasted and with a distinct grassy note, the ancient grain in this pasta not only plays well off thicker sauces layered with heartier components—its tubular form helps scoop up every last meaty drop.
How to Make Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1 pound dry spaghetti
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
6-8 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red
chile flakes
1/2 cup chopped fresh leaf
parsley
1/2 lemon
1 cup freshly grated
Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Add 2 tablespoons of salt and the pasta.
Cook until 75 percent done (about 6-7 minutes).
Set aside a cup of cooking water before you drain the pasta.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil over low heat in a 12-inch saute pan. Add the garlic and cook until caramelized, about 3-4 minutes. Add the black pepper, red chile flakes, and a 1/4 cup of parsley for 30 seconds more.
Carefully add the reserved pasta-cooking water and simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add pasta. Cook until liquid is reduced by a third.
Once the sauce has thickened, add reserved fresh parsley, lemon juice, and grated Parmesan.
Baked feta pasta has taken over the internet. It’s so popular that Finland actually ran out of feta cheese! The creamy and flavorful dish is quite simple to make, but tastes like it’s from a five-star restaurant. Plus, it’s super easy to veganize! If you’re vegan or dairy-free, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy this trend too.
There are so many innovative vegan recipes for baked feta pasta that use dairy-free alternatives to feta cheese and we’ve scoured the internet to find some of the best! From a classic feta pasta that uses store-bought plant-based feta, to more a unique creation that uses chocolate and bananas, there’s something for everyone on this list!
Advertisement
We also highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help you get healthy!
This vegan baked feta mac and cheese is so good that it got the attention of Lizzo, who also made her own veg feta pasta recently. The base for this feta uses tofu, cashews, and a blend of seasonings. If you’re feeling something a bit more creative, you should also check out @plantyou‘s vegan baked feta mac and cheese!
Advertisement
3. For Those With Other Dietary Restrictions and Allergies
Vegan’s with dietary restrictions can still enjoy this viral trend! Gluten-free? Try using palm hearts of palm noodles like @blogilates, spaghetti squash like @jennabuttke55, or just use your favorite gluten-free pasta! Soy-free? Check out this vegan feta pasta by @bearenger that is made with cashews and no tofu. Allergic to nuts? Try this nut-free version by @claudiakathryn that just uses tofu as the feta base or just use a block of silken tofu instead of feta like @annmarieelaban! If you’re allergic to nuts and soy, you can just use hummus instead of feta like @Sabra! You should also check out @whitlauritsen‘s list of swaps you can make!
By making a few easy swaps, @sheiscookingagain made a delicious Asian-inspired version of feta pasta! The creative spin features tofu, ramen noodles, rice, sesame oil, hot sauce, dried seaweed, and sesame seeds! @linda.1020 also made an Asian-inspired version of the viral recipe using cabbage and rice instead of noodles!
Some of the recipes venture quite far from the original recipe, but that’s what so fun about it! This version by @celiacinsydney takes the original concept and swaps all the savory ingredients out for sweet ones for a delicious dessert “feta pasta!” Not into sweet foods, but still want something more creative? Try this breakfast oatmeal feta pasta by @goldenthekitchen or this feta pasta-inspired couscous bake by @veganforyou!
For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Here are some great resources to get you started:
Check out these delicious vegan feta recipes that you can make at home:
For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content.Click here to Support Us
We hope you enjoy the products we recommend. We may receive a commission if you purchase a product mentioned in this article.
Cassie Sheets
If you have an Amazon Echo, you’ve probably tapped into some of the cool features the virtual assistant Alexa can provide, from controlling your lights and thermostat to grocery shopping and reading off recipes. Now you can add sous-chef to the list of tasks Alexa has mastered—at least when it comes to reheating your food.
How It Works
The Alexa-compatible AmazonBasics microwave can be voice controlled when paired with Echo, so with a simple command Alexa can reheat your pasta. You can preset times, like three minutes for oatmeal, two for popcorn, or a minute for a cup of coffee, and Alexa will remember the time it takes to heat up your go-to foods. It’s perfect for preparing large meals where you’re moving between the oven and microwave, or for multi-tasking during your morning rush.
The AmazonBasics microwave isn’t just voice-operated. It also has all the normal functions of a standard microwave so you can choose how to reheat your food.
Another bonus—you’ll never run out of popcorn. The microwave automatically reorders popcorn at a 10% discount when you’re running low if you sign up through the Alexa app.
Why Customers Love It
Amazon customers love this AmazonBasics microwave for all the extra features. One reviewer was hesitant about Alexa-compatibility and wondered if it was just a gimmick, but the feature was so simple to use that the reviewer ended up giving the microwave 5 stars. The microwave is designed to only cook for a reasonable amount of time as a safety feature, and if the door is open too long Alexa will remind you to close it.
Reviewers also liked that this microwave was big enough for everyday meals but compact enough for small spaces, and the price is comparable to other affordable microwaves at $60.
You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.
We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.
While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.
We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers
We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.
We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.
We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.
We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.
Fong’s Pizza in Des Moines has introduced a breakfast pizza called Loopy Fruits, the Des Moines Register reported. The topping is what will catch the eye of traditionalists. Instead of tomato sauce, sausage, pepperoni, hamburger meat, peppers, olives or even anchovies, this pizza combines Froot Loops and cheese, the newspaper reported.
Fong’s Pizza in Des Moines has introduced a breakfast pizza called Loopy Fruits, the Des Moines Register reported. The topping is what will catch the eye of traditionalists. Instead of tomato sauce, sausage, pepperoni, hamburger meat, peppers, olives or even anchovies, this pizza combines Froot Loops and cheese, the newspaper reported.
It is not the only unusual breakfast pizza on the menu at Fong’s. There is also steak and eggs, bacon popper and vegetarian.
“People want to try it. Some people hate it and some people are declaring war in the name of Italy on it,” Fong’s general manager Ron Livingston told KCCI. “But it’s definitely a pizza that makes people talk.”
It is not all happy talk, however.
Starting with frozen pizza maker DiGiorno, which used its official Twitter account to note, “Please do not disrespect the word pizza like this.
“The Midwesterners must be stopped,” Washington Post data reporter Christopher Ingraham tweeted.
“Oh, Iowa. It’s gonna be OK. Just back away slowly from the ‘breakfast pizza,’” another person tweeted. “We’re here for you.”
The official Twitter account of the state of New Jersey advised in a tweet, “Stick to corn,” while a Twitter user in neighboring Minnesota advised Iowans to “get your house in order.”
“As an Italian, I am officially declaring war,” another person tweeted.
My GOD, Iowa. Minnesota has long been friendly with you, but keep this up and we will have no choice but to 1) close the border or 2) invade, and liberate your people from this insanity. GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER.
Butter pie crust success! Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
I’m excited to get this recipe out of the way, as I have a few pie-like recipes on the horizon. A homemade pie crust can be used for both sweet and hardy pies. It can be frozen for months and, with just a little elbow grease, it’s just so flipping easy. Store-bought crusts can be fine, but they can also be expensive and come pre-formed (we’ll get into why that’s not a great thing in the notes).
There’s no need to experiment with flavor here, just technique. We’re only building a base to highlight the filling, so less is more. This recipe will deliver two crusts, assuming you’re using a 9-10 inch pie pan. It can be refrigerated for up to five days and frozen for a few months.
Full disclosure: this is not gluten-free, nor is it vegan. Sorry, but that’s how the flavor and texture really come through.
There are only four ingredients for pie crust. As we say in the kitchen, “Don’t French it up,” meaning don’t get exotic beyond fat, flour, salt and water. Let’s discuss these!
Fat
As the title of this recipe suggests, we’ll be using butter only. There are differing schools of thought on this, however, such as using lard, shortening or a butter/lard combination. Proponents of the latter claim this will yield a crispier crust, whereas using only butter is, well, a butter bomb. Butter has moisture in it. When heated, a butter crust will form more flakes because of the release of this moisture. Keep your butter in the freezer until you’re ready to work with it — it’s got to be cold. If not, your crust will turn out greasy. Use unsalted butter.
Flour
All-purpose is best. The higher protein content makes the crust rise higher and stay fresh longer. Again, don’t get exotic.
Salt
Pretty straightforward, but coarse sea salt, as opposed to table salt, gives me the best results in about any situation. I always have a jar of sea salt in my pantry from my grocery store’s bulk section for this reason.
Water
Like the fat, the water needs to be ice cold. Before I’m ready to add it, I keep it in a glass, with ice, in the refrigerator to get it down to 32 F.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Total time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Servings: 2 pie crusts
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Kitchen knife
Cutting board
Pastry knife or food processor
Table or large, flat surface
Rubber spatula
Rolling pin
Plastic wrap
Ingredients
2 ½ cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
16 tablespoons of unsalted butter (1 cup)
8 tablespoons of ice water (see notes below)
Procedure
Combine the flour and salt in a big mixing bowl.
Pie crust mixture before adding water. Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
Take out your frozen butter and cube it (see pictures). Add the butter to the flour and salt mixture.
Start by cutting frozen butter into “slats.” Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
Rotate the “slats” and repeat, cutting butter into “rods.” Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
Turn the cutting board sideways and cube the butter. Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
The mixture now needs to be mixed. If you’re doing this all by hand, a pastry cutter is best, but using two forks will work in a pinch. However, I just used my food processor — a batch of this size will require two separate mixings. The mixture should look like a coarse cornmeal.
Get out the ice water and a tablespoon. Add one tablespoon at a time, stirring the mixture after every addition with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. The mixture should be flaky, with larger chunks starting to form.
Spread flour on a table and your hands. Transfer the mixture from the bowl onto the floured table.
Form the mixture into one mass and cut it in half.
Form each half into circular disks, about an inch thick, and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
Pie crust formed, wrapped, and ready to refrigerate! Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
When ready to use your crust, re-flour the table and place one disk on top. Using a rolling pin — sorry, there’s really no substitute here — start rolling the crust from the middle and away from you. Turn the crust and repeat until it’s reached its desired radius. Be gentle but firm. The crust is your buddy.
Notes:
Regarding water: this can be somewhat tricky. Here in Chico, the atmosphere is fairly dry. I found myself adding about another tablespoon by flicking the mixture with wet fingers and it worked out fine. Do not add too much water! Your crust will turn out clumpy and heavy. The object here is a light, flaky crust.
When using the crust to line a pie pan, measure both the bottom and the sides. My 10-inch pie pan has a two-inch lip, so when rolling out my crust I have to make sure it’s spread out to 14 inches to cover the bottom and sides. In fact, when splitting my mixture in half, I give one a little more to accommodate for this. The other “half” rolls out to 11 inches to cover the top.
Measuring pie crust to fit the pie pan. Yes, get nerdy with the tape measure. Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
When your crust is rolled out and ready to either fit into a pie pan or lay across it, use the rolling pin to avoid it breaking during the transfer. Simply flour the rolling pin and roll the crust around it (see picture).
“Rolling” technique to transfer crust to pie pan. Also, a sneak peek of the next recipe! Photo by Ian Hilton, 2/23/21.
Sometimes, especially in dry climates, rolling crust out will make the edges crack or split. Still using cold water, dip a couple fingers in the water and apply very conservatively to the split edges, press together and gently keep rolling it out.
Store-bought crusts can work. Their biggest downfall, however, is that the freedom to shape the crust is gone. If you’re making a quiche, for example, store-bought is fine because you’re not going to want a top crust. By thawing a store-bought crust to lay it flat across a pie, the fat in the crust is heated up and your pie will be greasy.
We hope you enjoy the products we recommend. We may receive a commission if you purchase a product mentioned in this article.
Cassie Sheets
If you have an Amazon Echo, you’ve probably tapped into some of the cool features the virtual assistant Alexa can provide, from controlling your lights and thermostat to grocery shopping and reading off recipes. Now you can add sous-chef to the list of tasks Alexa has mastered—at least when it comes to reheating your food.
How It Works
The Alexa-compatible AmazonBasics microwave can be voice controlled when paired with Echo, so with a simple command Alexa can reheat your pasta. You can preset times, like three minutes for oatmeal, two for popcorn, or a minute for a cup of coffee, and Alexa will remember the time it takes to heat up your go-to foods. It’s perfect for preparing large meals where you’re moving between the oven and microwave, or for multi-tasking during your morning rush.
The AmazonBasics microwave isn’t just voice-operated. It also has all the normal functions of a standard microwave so you can choose how to reheat your food.
Another bonus—you’ll never run out of popcorn. The microwave automatically reorders popcorn at a 10% discount when you’re running low if you sign up through the Alexa app.
Why Customers Love It
Amazon customers love this AmazonBasics microwave for all the extra features. One reviewer was hesitant about Alexa-compatibility and wondered if it was just a gimmick, but the feature was so simple to use that the reviewer ended up giving the microwave 5 stars. The microwave is designed to only cook for a reasonable amount of time as a safety feature, and if the door is open too long Alexa will remind you to close it.
Reviewers also liked that this microwave was big enough for everyday meals but compact enough for small spaces, and the price is comparable to other affordable microwaves at $60.
Pie makes up a huge slice of American cuisine. Think apple pie during the Fourth of July. Pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving. Summer pies with fresh fruit.
In particular, a whole slate of pies became popular during times of hardship like the Great Depression and World War II.
“Depression pies” were made from what staple ingredients were available: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, etc. These pies were created from sheer practicality, a virtue ingrained in the Appalachian culture.
Because of those similarities, many of these pies have remained popular in our region. Let’s talk about five of the most popular ones:
Buttermilk Pie
Made with sugar, butter, eggs, buttermilk and wheat flour, buttermilk pie is associated with Southern cuisine. It often includes lemon juice and zest for a little extra zing. The creamy filling is often thickened with flour and it’s all housed in a buttery pastry crust. The now-shuttered Bluegrass Kitchen in Charleston served my favorite version of this pie: blueberry buttermilk pie. If you need to try it, you can still order it at Starlings Coffee & Provisions. You won’t regret it.
Similar to buttermilk pie, chess pie makes use of sugar, butter and eggs. But it uses cornmeal, rather than flour. The creamy, pale yellow filling is gooey and sweet and dense. The origin of its name is unclear, but some say it’s because the pie used to be stored in a pie chest, or “chess,” while others say that the name is derived from it being simple — “it’s ches’ pie.”
Vinegar Pie
If you have sugar, butter, flour and vinegar, you can make this sweet and tangy pie. Vinegar was added to pies in lieu of elusive and expensive fresh apples or lemons. The vinegar creates a tart flavor that pairs perfectly with the sweet sugar base.
Sugar Cream Pie
Likely originating with Shaker communities in Indiana or Pennsylvania, Sugar Cream Pie usually consists of sugar, cream, vanilla and flour all set in a pie shell. And, it’s even Indiana’s official state pie.
Water, flour, sugar, vanilla and butter are combined in a pie crust to create a delicious dessert that can be made when fresh fruit is unavailable or too expensive.
There are many more “make-do” pies, including shoo fly, mock apple and mincemeat. The ingredients all differ slightly, but what connects them all together is that they were developed from available ingredients. Whether that’s a lack of refrigeration, seasonal fruits or cash, those ingredient shortcomings made way for ingenuity and creativity in the form of pie.
Eggs, flour, sugar, grains and dried fruits were more accessible than high commodity items and made their way into pies with the resourcefulness of housewives. And they’ve persevered throughout Appalachia due to those same qualities that made them popular in the first place.
So if you value resourcefulness, I think that’s as good an excuse as any to enjoy a slice of pie. Or five.
If you’re anything like me, when you hear the words Tik Tok, you think of Ke$ha’s 2009 smash hit about brushing your teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
In 2021, however, TikTok has taken on a whole new meaning. If you haven’t heard of TikTok, it’s a video sharing app where millions of people share short videos ranging in topic from politics to comedy to home DIY and cooking.
Recently, one recipe has taken the app by storm: a ridiculously simple tomato-feta pasta.
In a past life — about two months ago — I was a food and dining reporter in Southwest Florida, constantly cooking and eating and looking for the latest edible trends. So, when I came across this pasta recipe during one of my and my long-distance boyfriend’s virtual late-night TikTok binges, I was fascinated.
Stick a whole block of feta in a pan, surrounded by tomatoes, bake and combine with pasta?
Uh, yeah, I’ll take that with a heaping side of “Yes, please.”
The best part of making this pasta for yourself is that there really is nothing precise about it. You’ll see my recipe calls for basil and two pints of cherry tomatoes. Don’t like basil? Cool, don’t add it. Are you a tomato fiend? Great, throw some sun-dried tomatoes in there. It’s that simple.
This version is influenced by the original recipe, with a few extras ingredients I threw in to enhance the flavor.
This dish is way too rich for a humid Florida evening, but a snowy night in New England? Go for it.
From this Floridian-turned-Nutmegger to all of you, please accept this pasta recipe as my “thanks for welcoming me to the neighborhood” gift.
Tomato-feta TikTok pasta
1 box pasta (I prefer a short pasta, like farfalle)
1 8-ounce block feta cheese
2 pints cherry tomatoes
Fresh basil leaves (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Italian seasoning (to taste)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup pasta water
Balsamic glaze (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Add tomatoes to baking dish and toss with 1/2 cup olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and toss again.
Clear a space in the middle of the dish and plop that feta block in. Season feta to taste with Italian seasoning and just a pinch each of salt and pepper.
Bake for 30 minutes, until feta is golden brown and tomatoes have blistered slightly.
Meanwhile, cook a box of pasta in salted water, according to box directions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water.
When feta is done, take it out of the oven, and grate or crush three cloves of garlic into the dish. Then add as much chopped basil as is desired.
Set the oven to broil and return feta and tomatoes to oven for 5 to 7 minutes, watching closely as broilers can be unpredictable.
When feta is done broiling, take it out and smash it up with your favorite cooking spoon. Mix with the tomatoes until creamy. Add pasta and toss until fully coated.
If sauce is too thick and rich (it will be) add 1 tablespoon pasta water and taste, continuing until desired consistency is reached.
Serve topped with more fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
sarajane.sullivan@hearstmediact.com, @bysarajane on Twitter
We hope you enjoy the products we recommend. We may receive a commission if you purchase a product mentioned in this article.
Cassie Sheets
If you have an Amazon Echo, you’ve probably tapped into some of the cool features the virtual assistant Alexa can provide, from controlling your lights and thermostat to grocery shopping and reading off recipes. Now you can add sous-chef to the list of tasks Alexa has mastered—at least when it comes to reheating your food.
How It Works
The Alexa-compatible AmazonBasics microwave can be voice controlled when paired with Echo, so with a simple command Alexa can reheat your pasta. You can preset times, like three minutes for oatmeal, two for popcorn, or a minute for a cup of coffee, and Alexa will remember the time it takes to heat up your go-to foods. It’s perfect for preparing large meals where you’re moving between the oven and microwave, or for multi-tasking during your morning rush.
The AmazonBasics microwave isn’t just voice-operated. It also has all the normal functions of a standard microwave so you can choose how to reheat your food.
Another bonus—you’ll never run out of popcorn. The microwave automatically reorders popcorn at a 10% discount when you’re running low if you sign up through the Alexa app.
Why Customers Love It
Amazon customers love this AmazonBasics microwave for all the extra features. One reviewer was hesitant about Alexa-compatibility and wondered if it was just a gimmick, but the feature was so simple to use that the reviewer ended up giving the microwave 5 stars. The microwave is designed to only cook for a reasonable amount of time as a safety feature, and if the door is open too long Alexa will remind you to close it.
Reviewers also liked that this microwave was big enough for everyday meals but compact enough for small spaces, and the price is comparable to other affordable microwaves at $60.
Culinary enthusiasts have really had their moment this February, as TikTok has been full of wannabe chefs giving their own spin on dishes such as feta pasta and a vegan chicken substitute: two incredibly simple viral recipes.
As most of the world continues to be some kind of lockdown, a lot of us have taken to the kitchen as a way to pass the time and maybe learn a few culinary skills in the process.
Advertisement
Naturally, as we share every step of this process on TikTok, a few novice-friendly recipes like feta pasta and vegan chicken have taken the internet by storm, with popstar Lizzo even trying her hand at the viral pasta dish. As the foodies continue to dominate TikTok, here’s everything you need to know about the viral food sensations.
What is feta pasta?
If you’re active on TikTok, you are almost guaranteed to see dozens of variations of this popular dish popping up on your feed. With the tag ‘feta pasta’ having over 635 million views on the app, it is clear that everyone wants in on the trend.
Advertisement
The specific recipe that has TikTok on tenterhooks comes from Finnish blogger Jenny Hayran. The recipe, which is called “Uunifetapasta” – the Finnish word for “oven-baked pasta” – was first posted 2019. At the time, the dish was so popular in Finland that grocery stores in the country faced a national feta cheese shortage.
It’s easy to see why the recipe is so popular among TikToker users: it’s incredibly simple. Cover a block of feta cheese and cherry tomatoes with olive oil, season them with salt and pepper and bake until the feta melts and tomato bursts. Then, just add your favorite pasta and throw in some seasonings like basil.
Consequently, there are hundreds of users trying the recipe for themselves, wanting to see what the buzz is about while other more experienced cooks have taken to adding their own variations to the dish.
Advertisement
One especially divisive recipe, which was uploaded by TikTok account The Hunger Diaries, involved adding strawberries to the mix.
Users reacted with horror in the comments, with one TikTok account calling it a “crime”, while another said: “Y’all are getting too brave with this pasta mess.”
Other variations to the dish, which went down a lot better with TikTok users include pesto, olives, and goat’s cheese.
What is “vegan chicken”?
Meat substitutes such as tofu are commonplace in any vegan diet, but a lot of TikTokers have become puzzled by a new chicken substitute, which TikTok user @fakelettuce demonstrated can be made with just flour and water.
In the video, he demonstrated how after mixing flour and water into a bowl, you knead it and then leave it to rest for an hour.
Then, it’s just a matter of kneading it again with more water, draining it, adding herbs and spices, and then after leaving it to sit for a little bit, frying it in a pan with vegetable stock.
Since the video was uploaded on 20 February, it has received 1.8 million views and nearly 36k likes. Although a lot of TikTok users expressed confusion at how he could turn flour and water into “chicken” – with one commenter calling the user “magic man” – it has nonetheless soared in popularity on the app, with the tags “vegan chicken” and “fake chicken” having 5.3 million and 2 million views respectively.
The interesting thing about this recipe is that it isn’t actually that new – it comes from a Chinese tradition called “seitan”, which involves turning wheat into protein.
Kent Torrey, proprietor of The Cheese Shop in Carmel, isn’t hip to the social media platform TikTok and hadn’t seen the recipe video I was asking about as I attempted to interrogate him about the feta situation.
If you are similarly not hip to TikTok, there’s a possibility you haven’t seen the video either.
So take a moment, open a browser window and search “feta pasta TikTok.” Choose one of the 103,000 videos that will result from that search (pretty much any one will do, doesn’t have to be on TikTok) and watch it.
Not computer inclined? Here’s the explanation for why I was trying to interrogate Torrey about feta.
Empty a container (or two – there’s really no rule here) of cherry tomatoes in an oven-safe baking dish. Pour over olive oil (you be the judge of how much – I can’t tell you how to live your lives), throw in a little or a lot of minced garlic, give it a stir and then sprinkle it all with salt and pepper (use Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, please, because while I can’t tell you how to live your lives, I can judge your salt and pepper choices). In the center of the cherry tomatoes, nestle a whole block of feta. Pour over a bit more oil, give it more salt and pepper and then season the living daylights out of it with chili flakes, dried oregano and basil. Throw it into an oven preheated to 400 degrees and let it sit there, melting together, for anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes. I’d go 40. Turn on the broiler and give that bone-white feta some nice color. Just a few minutes should do it.
While you wait for the roasting magic to happen, boil some pasta. Again, you choose the type. I’m an orecchiette fan, you might prefer penne. There’s no rule. Once cooked, drain the pasta but save a cup of the pasta water, because you’re not a savage and you’re going to need it. Then take that dish of feta and tomatoes out of the oven, and start mashing the cheese and tomatoes together. Use a fork. Use two forks. Once it’s the consistency I like to think of as glop, add in the pasta and the pasta water – the starch from the water helps bind the sauce to the noodles – and stir it all together until well combined. Top with fresh basil, maybe a dash or two of chili flakes and marvel at the thing you’ve created that can feed an entire household for not a lot of money and an almost total lack of effort.
That’s it. That’s the whole of the recipe that created a feta shortage in Finland, where a Finnish blogger is credited with creating the dish in 2018. Between then and now, as recounted in a Washington Post story from earlier this month, a U.S. TikToker with the handle “grilledcheesesocial” posted her own feta pasta video in January, and the recipe went viral once again; her video alone has more than 3 million views.
It’s also inspired any number of variations. Don’t like feta? Make it with burrata or goat cheese! Can’t find decent tomatoes? Make it with mushrooms or squash or kale or all of the above! It’s baked pasta anarchy!
Torrey asked shop manager Katie Glitz if she’d noted any run on feta. Walk-in customers aren’t necessarily buying more of it, but restaurants are, she tells him. And two of the shop’s three feta distributors were out of feta altogether this past week.
“She had to go to that third source, and that could mean people have been seeing the video and buying it,” he says.
Not everyone is thrilled with the results. Of some acquaintances who have made it, one says it wasn’t worth all the carbs. Another says it was too salty. Still another says it was woefully under-seasoned and could benefit from the addition of kimchi.
But my favorite take is from Christine Najjar (on TikTok as @itsmetinx), a Stanford University graduate and bona fide influencer (with almost 900,000 followers) whose obsessions include fashion, the Kardashians and a Los Angeles grocery store called Erewhon. Earlier this month, she did her own video in which she does an impression of feta cheese as an influencer.
“Oh in the pasta? Yeah, that’s me,” she says. “I actually didn’t know the tomatoes that well before, but they’re cool. I mean, I guess I’m kinda like more important to the pasta but yeah, I like collabing with them.”
British chef, Kieron Hales, gives his Michigan community a taste of home
WHAT:Zingerman's Cornman Farms, an event venue, culinary destination and picturesque farm outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is excited to announce the fifth annual Pie & Mash Pop-Up Shop! Inspired by memories of his homeland, British chef and co-owner Kieron Hales transforms the farmhouse into a traditional pie and mash shop every Wednesday in March. Guests must order their pies online in advance and visit the farm to pick-up their meals.
Chef Kieron is thrilled to bring this nostalgic comfort food to Cornman Farms. “I started cooking in high-end restaurants in London at 13 and was making almost no money, so I would frequent the local pie and mash shop for an affordable and delicious meal. To this day it is one of my favorite dishes to eat and to make at home.”
The Pie & Mash Pop-Up kicks off on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Chef Kieron will feature a different savory pie flavor for each week of the series, ranging from classic Beef and Onion to flavorful Chicken Tikka Masala. The handmade pies are served alongside creamy mashed potatoes, a seasonal vegetable and Chef Kieron’s signature Devon fudge, a recipe from his hometown. See below for the Pop-Up dates and weekly pie flavors.
Wednesday, March 3Steak & Stilton Pie | Potato, Mushroom & Stilton Pie (Veg)
Mushy Peas
Mashed Potatoes
Double Cream Devon FudgeWednesday, March 10Beef & Onion Pie
Fried Broccoli
Mashed Potatoes
Orange & Chocolate FudgeWednesday, March 17Chicken Tikka Masala Pie | Chickpea Tikka Masala Pie (Veg)
Lemon & Ginger Carrots
Mashed Potatoes
Corn Crisp FudgeWednesday, March 24Chicken, Leek & Tarragon Pie
Curry Roasted Parsnips
Mashed Potatoes
Coffee Cream Split Fudge
Wednesday, March 31Devon Pie | Vegetarian Devon Pie (Veg)
Carrot & Swede Puree
Mashed Potatoes
Sea Salt Caramel Fudge
WHEN: The Pie & Mash Pop-Up Shop will be open from 4:30pm to 7:00pm every Wednesday in March.
INGREDIENTS
