Culinary Explorer
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Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Olives
Created by Chef Dean
A whole block of briny feta cheese roasted until soft and spreadable, surrounded by blistered cherry tomatoes and meaty Kalamata olives, ready to be scooped onto crusty bread while still bubbling from the oven.
This dish conquered social media for a reason. The technique is almost embarrassingly simple, but the result tastes like something you'd pay good money for at a taverna overlooking the Aegean. A block of feta becomes creamy and spreadable in the oven's heat, while cherry tomatoes burst and release their sweet juices into a sauce that begs for bread.
The Greeks have been baking feta for generations. They call it feta psiti, and it appears on meze tables from Athens to the islands. What went viral was merely a rediscovery of something wonderful that had been waiting for us all along. The internet didn't invent this. It simply reminded us.
I've refined the technique through dozens of batches. The secrets are fewer than you'd think: good feta, ripe tomatoes, quality olives, and an oven hot enough to blister without burning. Get these right and you'll have a centerpiece appetizer that takes ten minutes to assemble and makes you look like you spent all afternoon cooking.
Ingredients
Greek feta cheese
Quantity
1 block (8 ounces)
preferably sheep's milk, kept whole
cherry or grape tomatoes
Quantity
2 pints (about 24 ounces)
Kalamata olives
Quantity
1/2 cup
pitted
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Greek feta cheesepreferably sheep's milk, kept whole | 1 block (8 ounces) |
| cherry or grape tomatoes | 2 pints (about 24 ounces) |
| Kalamata olivespitted | 1/2 cup |
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