Turkish Pasta (Yalanci Manti)
Turkish pasta is short pasta under garlic yogurt, browned ground beef and paprika butter. In Turkey it is called yalanci manti, fake manti: the two sauces of the manti dumplings without the hours of folding. Thirty minutes from pot to bowl.
Ingredients
- 400 gshort pasta
- 500 gground beef
- 1 pcsonion
- 400 gGreek yogurt
- 3 clovesgarlic
- 60 gbutter
- 1 tbsptomato paste
- 1 tspsweet paprika
- 1 tspdried mint
- 0.5 tspred pepper flakes
- 1 tspsalt
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
Method
- Take the yogurt out of the fridge first of all and let it come to room temperature. Grate the garlic into it, add half the salt and stir until smooth.
- Boil the pasta in heavily salted water until al dente. Save a cup of the cooking water before draining.
- Meanwhile, cook the diced onion in a dry hot pan for two minutes, add the ground beef and break it up with a spoon.
- Keep the beef on high heat until the liquid has cooked off and the meat browns rather than steams. Season with the rest of the salt and the pepper.
- In a small pan, melt the butter until it foams and smells nutty. Stir in the tomato paste, paprika and pepper flakes, cook for one minute and take it off the heat before it darkens.
- Drain the pasta and loosen it with a splash of the reserved water so it does not clump.
- Spread the pasta in bowls, spoon the cold garlic yogurt over it, add the hot beef, then pour the paprika butter across the top and finish with dried mint. Serve at once.
FAQ
Two reasons: the yogurt was straight from the fridge, or it was low-fat. Let full-fat yogurt sit out for half an hour and spoon it over the pasta rather than stirring it into the hot pan.
Manti are tiny hand-folded dumplings filled with spiced meat, served with the same garlic yogurt and paprika butter. Turkish pasta keeps the sauces and the meat but uses boiled pasta, which is why it is called yalanci manti, fake manti.
Short ridged shapes hold the sauces best: penne, fusilli, macaroni or Turkish erişte. Lamb is a traditional swap for beef and gives a fuller flavour; ground turkey works but needs extra butter.
Leave out the meat and it is still the authentic dish — the plain version with garlic yogurt and paprika butter is cooked in Turkish homes all the time. Chickpeas fried in the spiced butter make a good substitute for the beef.
Keep the three parts separate. Pasta and meat reheat well; the yogurt goes on cold, at the table. Assembled leftovers turn grainy in the fridge.
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