What Is Roasted Feta?

Roasted feta is feta cheese that has been cooked in the oven at a high temperature. Also called baked feta, roasted feta is often flavored with oil, savory herbs and spices, or sweet flavors like fruit or honey. This cheese does not melt and become runny, but browns in the heat of the oven. It can come in the form of a whole roasted block, which browns and caramelizes, or it can be mixed with other ingredients and baked. Some baked feta dishes are topped with bread crumbs, particularly panko crumbs, to give the dish a crunchy top crust.

This type of cheese can be roasted with savory things, like meat, tomatoes, and olives, or sweet toppings like honey, which browns under the oven heat to form a crispy and sweet coating. Feta can be roasted as a slab that is then cut into individual servings, or it can be cut into small servings before it is roasted, individually browning each separate piece. This food is usually made at home by roasting feta cheese in the oven, but it can also be ordered at some restaurants, particularly Greek or Italian ones. It is commonly served as an appetizer or dip, or as a cracker spread on a refreshments table alongside appetizer vegetables like olives and tomatoes, plus other soft dips and cracker-friendly fare.

Feta is a crumbly white cheese that is made in blocks, which can be roasted whole or cut into chunks before roasting. It is a brined cheese, which gives it a salty flavor. Roasted feta is just one of a wide variety of ways feta is served. This cheese appears cold in salads or on crackers, and can also be used as a hot stuffing for meats and vegetables or as creamy pockets of warm feta cheese in a baked pasta dish. When including roasted feta as part of a dish, it is important to watch the salt content, since the saltiness of feta cheese can be overpowering in an otherwise savory dish.

Though roasted feta should technically be made with feta cheese, many other brined crumbly white cheeses can be used similarly. Since feta cheese has grown popular as a result of food trends, it can often be replaced with white brined cheese that are similar but not technically feta. Non-feta white cheeses tend to be less expensive than feta cheese, but they can also be mislabeled as feta cheese, especially outside of the cheese's home regions of Greece and Albania. In theory, only traditionally made cheese made from sheep's or goat's milk can be called feta, but many mass-produced white brined cow's cheeses are erroneously marketed as feta cheese.