Lamb manti with yoghurt & sumac
SERVES 4 / PREPARATION 1½ HOURS / COOKING 10 MINUTES
Manti is pasta of Turkish origin. By all accounts, the size of the manti denotes the level of respect that you give the eater – the smaller the pasta, the more esteemed the guest. Given the time-consuming nature of making any pasta dish, I think the guest would have to be pretty special for me to make these smaller than the size here. The recipe here will make 60 x 6cm-sized manti, which means you’ll have more than enough for four people plus some extra manti to freeze for another meal. But should you wish to make 3cm-sized squares for filling, you’ll get around 180. I tried using wonton wrappers but found that the finished manti were rather flabby and I preferred the bite of a fresh pasta. This amount of dough makes a bit more than you need – I roll it out, cut into irregular pieces and dry it with the offcuts for quick pasta dishes.
FOR THE MANTI
450g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten 3-4 tablespoons water
Put the flour in a large bowl, add the eggs and a little of the water until a rough dough forms, adding more water if necessary (you could do this in a food processor and pulse briefly). Knead until smooth. Wrap and set aside for an hour.
FOR THE FILLING
500g lamb mince
1 medium onion, grated
½ teaspoon dried mint
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon harissa (see p32)
½ cup flat-leafed parsley, finely chopped 1 teaspoon salt
Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate until required.
Divide the pasta dough into four pieces. On a floured bench roll out the dough as thin as you can, ideally 1-2mm. Alternatively you can use a pasta machine, running each piece of dough through the rollers three times on each setting, to the second-thinnest setting. Take a ruler and cut the dough into 6cm squares.
Add a teaspoon of filling into each square. Bring together the opposing corners into the middle, repeat with the remaining corners and squeeze the seams together so there are no holes. Put onto a tray lined with baking paper.
If you aren’t eating these on the day they are made you can freeze them. Just put the tray of manti into the freezer until frozen, then put into containers until required. Add a few minutes extra to the cooking time.
TO SERVE
1 litre chicken stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove garlic
2 cups thick Greek-style yoghurt 50g butter
2 teaspoons harissa chopped parsley and sumac for sprinkling
Heat the chicken stock with the cinnamon and keep warm. Mash the garlic with a little salt and mix with the yoghurt. Allowing 7-8 pieces of manti per person, cook in boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes if fresh and 6-8 minutes if cooking from frozen. Melt the butter, add the harissa and set aside.
Smear ½ cup yoghurt into each warmed bowl. Add the manti, ladle over some chicken stock, drizzle with the harissa butter, add the chopped parsley and sprinkle with sumac.