Baked feta dip with hot honey

Name: Baked feta dip with hot honey
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 × 8 oz block feta (8 to 10 oz); 1 ½ cups grape or cherry tomatoes, halved; 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; ¼ cup red onion, thinly sliced; 2 tbsp pitted olives or capers, drained and chopped (optional); ¼ tsp Urfa or Aleppo pepper, or red pepper flakes (¼ to ½ tsp, to taste); ½ tsp honey (½ to 1 tsp); sea salt; olive oil, to coat; torn mint or basil, to finish; sliced baguette, pita or crackers, to serve

The block of feta that went viral, finally behaving like a dip.

At a Glance

Time

1 hr 20 min

Serves

Story

This is the offspring of that baked-feta pasta that went round the internet a few years ago, and it works because of what a hot oven does to feta. Cold from the block it crumbles, but bake it and it slackens into something molten and spoonable, tangy and creamy at once. Around it the little tomatoes collapse into a jammy relish and the raw garlic and onion turn sweet and soft, so the whole dish seasons itself as it goes.

Ingredients

1 × 8 oz block feta8 to 10 oz
1 ½ cups grape or cherry tomatoeshalved
2 cloves garlicthinly sliced
¼ cup red onionthinly sliced
2 tbsp pitted olives or capersdrained and chopped (optional)
¼ tsp Urfa or Aleppo pepperor red pepper flakes (¼ to ½ tsp, to taste)
½ tsp honey½ to 1 tsp
sea salt
olive oilto coat
torn mint or basilto finish
sliced baguettepita or crackers, to serve

Method

A warm dip for people who arrive when they said they would. The oven does nearly all of it and the reward is a dish of molten cheese and burst tomatoes you scoop up with torn bread. Keep the olives if you love them, leave them if you don't, the capers do the same briny job either way.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees and set the block of feta in a small gratin or baking dish, ideally not metal.
In a bowl, toss the tomatoes, garlic, onion, olives or capers if using, the Urfa pepper and a very small pinch of salt with enough olive oil to coat them generously.
Spoon the vegetables around the feta. Spoon the honey over the top of the cheese, spreading it with the back of the spoon, then drizzle the whole dish lightly with more oil.
Bake until the tomatoes have broken down, the garlic is tender and the feta is browned, 35 to 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables but not the feta once at the halfway mark.
Scatter the herbs over the top, then use a spoon to swirl the vegetables into the softened cheese. It will look curdled and streaky, which is exactly right. Serve warm with bread while the middle is still runny. It does not last long. It never does.

For a crowd

16-20 people

Feta for a crowd wants surface area, not depth. Bake three or four blocks spaced out in one big dish or two, same 425°F, with an extra 5 to 10 minutes since a fuller dish runs behind. Toss the tomatoes ahead, then send it out in relays, because a cold baked feta is a sad thing indeed.

On the pass