Give TikTok's Viral Feta Pasta A Fall Twist With One Ingredient Swap

Not every trend on TikTok contributes positively to our lives — in fact, perhaps not many at all. There are some viral food videos from the past that we simply can't unsee, from NyQuil chicken to the infamous pink sauce. But the sheet pan feta pasta that went viral in 2022? That one was a true gift to society — and with seasonal twists, it can continue to be an easy weeknight staple year-round.

Typically, the vegetarian dish is a sheet pan meal with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and a block of feta cheese baked together in the oven and then stirred into a creamy sauce to top a box of penne pasta. But there's no reason those cherry tomatoes can't be swapped for another ingredient — say, the pumpkin-adjacent, unsung hero of fall, butternut squash.

As seen in this TikTok video, roasting cubed butternut squash over a long period of time allows it to soften enough to be crushed into a creamy sauce along with the cheese. You can also add cozy seasonings like sage and oregano, use dairy-free feta cheese if you or people you're cooking for have a lactose intolerance, or add sausage or chicken for some extra protein. Have fun with it — you can even mix in cream cheese for an even more luxurious pasta.

You've almost certainly saved a recipe to your Pinterest, opened it, and tallied the ingredients, only to find that a so-called simple recipe would somehow set you back $50. But this dish is the real deal in terms of cost savings.

Of course, prices will vary depending on where you shop and how elaborate you get with it, but here are a couple of price breakdowns for the dish based on common shopping destinations. At Trader Joe's, one pound of penne pasta costs $0.99, a 20-ounce bag of pre-cut butternut squash costs $3.99, a block of feta costs $3.49, crushed garlic comes in at $2.49 (and a head of garlic costs less), a package of sweet apple chicken sausage costs $4.29, and olive oil, which will last you many more meals, costs $7.99. That's a total of $23.24 — without tax, of course — or $15.25 if you already have olive oil. And you'll even get 3-4 servings out of it. If you're shopping at Aldi's, the same line-up of ingredients will cost a total of $18.84, or $12.79 without olive oil.

Although it might cost a little more, you could also try making this dish with farmers' market finds, locating fresh butternut squash, homegrown garlic and sage, and feta from a local cheesemaker. You could also attempt to make pasta at home, just make sure to avoid making these common mistakes everyone makes with fresh pasta when doing so!