Spruce Up Your Tomato Feta Pasta With A Bold Cheese Swap

A viral trend for good reason, baked tomato feta pasta is a one-pot meal that's as easy to assemble as it is delicious. It's made by baking a block of feta surrounded by cherry tomatoes while you boil a pot of pasta, combining the two in the baking dish for a creamy, umami-rich pasta dinner. The salty, crumbly feta blends with the roasted cherry tomatoes to create a rich creamy sauce that clings to whatever type of pasta you throw into it. However, if feta isn't your favorite, you can spruce up this viral pasta dish by swapping it for another type of soft cheese.

Feta isn't the only option your grocery store deli or dairy section has to choose from, as there is an abundance of creamy blocks of cheese that will melt with cherry tomatoes just as easily while providing a completely different flavor profile. For example, Boursin cheese, a French-born packaged cheese, is the perfect size for the swap and has a mild, savory richness. Plus, it comes in numerous flavors, from caramelized onion to garlic and herbs.

For a bolder flavor, goat cheese is just as plentiful and bestows its own funky umami notes to the tangy, sweet umami of roasted tomatoes. Like Boursin, goat cheese also comes flavored with herbs, aromatics, and even dried fruit. For an ultra-rich gooey feta substitute, brie and camembert are especially decadent. Just as ricotta is a classic ingredient in lasagna, it'd also be a great feta swap.

While all of these cheese substitutes will easily melt and loosen with added moisture from the juicy roasted tomatoes, a pour of starchy pasta water is paramount to transform the duo into a legitimate sauce. So, you should always reserve some of the pasta water upon draining it to add along with the hot pasta to your cheese and tomato mixture. A salty cheese like feta may not warrant extra seasonings, but a milder, richer cheese like ricotta or Boursin could use more salt than just the pasta water. You could bring salty nutty flavors to ricotta and tomato pasta by blending the ricotta with shredded Parmesan cheese. A sprinkling of red pepper flakes and lemon zest would also work really well with ricotta.

The advantage of using goat cheese or Boursin is that many of their variants come pre-seasoned, saving you the trouble of buying dried herbs or other spices. That said, these cheeses can also give you ideas for further embellishment. For example, mango habanero goat cheese would put a Mexican twist to your tomato and pasta, which you could amplify by stirring in diced cilantro, or chorizo. We ranked Boursin's black garlic and rosemary variety as the tastiest, so you could use it as a feta swap to garnish with more earthy flavors like this truffle zest seasoning.