Cheat’s Mantı image from ISTANBUL cookbook, photo by Sam A Harris
I absolutely love mantı , Turkish dumplings with fillings. When I am short of time though, I make this “Cheat’s Mantı”, Kıymalı Makarna, using shell shaped conchiglie pasta, over a delicious Turkish style meat sauce, topped with garlicky yoghurt and spices infused olive oil – a lovely meal my mother used to make for us for busy weekday dinners. And it certainly delivers that satisfying mantı taste – the garlicky yoghurt and spiced oil oil take the dish to the next level and brings comforting mantı vibes, in almost no time. The recipe is included at my new cookbook ISTANBUL, Delicious Recipes from the Heart of the City, you can get a copy here.
You can make your meaty ragout sauce ahead of time. I try to sneak in as much vegetables as possible in the sauce; diced carrots, peppers, mushrooms, aubergines all work well. For a vegetarian option, how about having a go my Traybake sini manti with spiced chickpea filling, from my vegetarian cookbook SEBZE? It really is so delicious. There is a lovely vegetarian lasagne recipe wih lentils and aubergines in SEBZE too, you can get a copy here.
My family absolutely love this Cheat Manti, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. You can serve Shepherd salad with sumac onions as a side, if you like.
Afiyet Olsun,
Ozlem
- 400g/14oz shell (conchiglie) pasta or your choice of pasta
- 450g/1lb minced/ground beef or lamb
- 3tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 1 small carrot, finely diced
- 1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 200g/7oz (can of) chopped tomato
- 1tbsp double concentrated tomato paste
- 1tsp ground cumin
- 200ml/7fl oz water
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- For the garlicky yoghurt:
- 400g/14oz plain yoghurt (I like to use whole milk yoghurt)
- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
- Salt to your taste
- For the spiced oil:
- 1tsp pul biber
- 4tbsp olive oil
- 2tsp dried mint
- Please take the yoghurt out of the fridge and bring to room temperature, about 40 minutes before you ensemble the dish. For the garlicky yoghurt, combine the yoghurt with chopped garlic in a medium sized bowl. Season with salt to your taste, combine well and set aside.
- Pour 3bsp olive oil on a wide heavy pan and stir in the onions and saute for 5 minutes, over medium to high heat..Stir in the carrots and peppers and sauté for a further 3 minutes
- Stir in the ground (minced) meat, garlic and sauté for 4-5 minutes over medium to high heat, stirring continuousl, until the meat is browned.
- Add the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and water, combine well. Season with salt, ground black pepper, cumin, combine and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken at the end of this period; check the seasoning and add more salt or ground black pepper if needed, turn the heat off.
- Towards the last 10 minutes of the meat sauce to get ready, pour in the hot water to a medium sized pan and stir in your pasta (I like to use shell shaped conchiglie pasta, which reminds me the manti shape). Cook your pasta, al dente, as per the cooking instructions in the package (conchiglie pasta cooks al dente in 10 minutes). Drain the water and drizzle a little olive oil over and combine, so the pasta doesn’t stick.
- In a small sauté pan, drizzle 4tbsp olive oil and stir in the pul biber .Stir and gently infuse the pul biber and dried mint to the olive oil, over medium to low heat, for 35 seconds,, turn the heat off.
- You are now ready to ensemble your cheat's manti feast; using a serving spoon, place the pasta on a plate. Spread the 3 – 4 tablespoonfuls of the meat sauce over the pasta and scatter a few small dollops of garlicky yoghurt over the sauce. Drizzle spiced oil over the garlicky yoghurt. Serve immediately.
- Afiyet Olsun.
