INGREDIENTS:
500g fresh feta cheese
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon preserved lemon or finely diced lemon flesh
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (parsley, dill, thyme)
DIRECTIONS:
Break the feta into rough chunks and place in a small to medium ovenproof dish with a flat base.
Sprinkle over the lemon, garlic, pine nuts and drizzle over the oil and bake in a preheated oven at 200c (400f) for 10-15 minutes until the feta is golden brown around the edges and the oil is bubbling.
Garnish with herbs and lemon wedges and serve immediately.
Chef's comment: This very easy recipe is delicious with fresh bread and can be varied by adding fresh herbs of your choice. Serve it warm or straight from the oven.
selected by Laura Sheehan
5 comments:
Great recipe, Laura! Jeremy and I made it for dinner on Saturday night, and, since it was just the two of us, we halved the recipe and baked the feta in two shallow ramekins. (Half a block of feta is DEFINITELY too much for one person, so -- our typical gluttony notwithstanding -- I couldn't finish that amount.)
Against the whiteness of the cheese, we especially loved the play of colors with the lemon zest, pine nuts, and fresh dill. To add to the contrast and bump up the flavor, we also sprinkled a few red pepper flakes on top, which I loved.
Lately, I haven't been home much, so I experienced a nesting urge over the weekend and baked a fresh bread to go with this. It was an olive fougasse, which paired well with the Mediterranean flavor of the whole thing. Nothing beats the smell of bread baking, right?
We also served the cheese with bell pepper strips and oven-dried tomatoes. Because I thought the overall flavor of the feta was a little salty for me, the sweetness of the tomatoes made them my favorite partner.
When we make this dish again -- and we will -- I think I'll change a few things. I'll definitely use smaller ramekins. I might also use more hot pepper flakes and a little less garlic, since it kind of dominated in the more concentrated areas. I'd also skip the step of squeezing the lemon juice over the top -- it left some sogginess on the bottom of the dish. I''ll also be sure to bake it a little longer or add a few minutes under the broiler, which helped ours to brown more.
Overall, a fun, easy, and tasty new recipe...it was too much for two, but I'd love to serve a big dish at a party. (Also, Jeremy sometimes does that stupid Atkins diet -- poor fellow lives with a vegetarian baker, but whatever! -- and this is perfectly compatible with it.) Thanks, Laura!
I liked this recipe and so did my cheese-loving friend who was in town. She couldn't stop eating it!!!
I broke up my Feta into small'ish chunks so it would melt a little more. I put way too much lemon on it, which overpowered the Garlic I was hoping to taste. So, next time I make it I will definitely cut back on the lemon and add some more garlic.
I paired the baked feta with fresh French bread, which was the perfect companion.
Overall, it was a super easy and yummy recipe to make. I'm not totally committed to it but I definitely did like it.
This dish turned out beautifully for me. I served it to some friends who came over yesterday afternoon. I especially loved the thyme flavor.
The lemon flavor in my dish was very subtle. I used one chopped up lemon - mostly the meat of the fruit and not much of its juice.
Next time, I will cut the feta into smaller pieces because my rather large chunks were hard to balance on the french bread slices while taking bites. I toasted the bread slices in the oven with a bit of olive oil before serving.
Great call on the thyme, Kara -- I wish we had done that.
Our feta chunks were also too big for the bread...a lot wound up on the floor.
This recipe rocks!!! Thank you, Laura Sheehan, for this recipe! I like all the recipes introduced here, but this one was especially a big hit to me since it was easy to make, delicious, inexpensive (Ha!), and great for different meals. This is one of the recipes that I would like to use for my friends when I have them over.
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