Turkish Manti
If you go looking for treasure long enough, deep enough, and carefully enough, you will find it. Such are the tiny beauties known as Manti in Turkish cuisine. They are small (quite small) purse shaped dumplings filled with a simple something–ours were beef, onion, parsley, salt, but many come with lamb or potato–served beneath an even easier tomato paste and aleppo pepper sauce, a brown butter sauce, and a garlic sumac yoghurt. Oh, and mint.
Manti are a treasure of the Silk Road. Though traditionally Turkish, they are also made in Armenia (which happens to be the ethnic origin of my boyfriend on his mother’s French side), though it’s relatively accepted that those little Manti came from Central Asia, the Caucasus and Anatolia circa the 13th/14th centuries, along that very far reaching Silk Road. The word Manti itself derives from Mantu/Mandu, which means dumpling. To me, they are like an early form of tortellini moving along Mongol trade routes and gathering sauces as they go.
I first came to know these little gems about a month into dating my boyfriend, aka the Turk of Astoria, Long Island, and California. He introduced me to the Turkish Grill, a lovely little Turkish restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens. We ordered the typical street fare: kebobs (doner, kofte, etc.), babaganoush and the like. Being the pasta obsessed human that I am, I inquired about the Manti. He said they were little dumpling like pastas with a lamb or beef filling. I hadn’t yet enjoyed too many pastas with yoghurt as part of the sauce, but I gave in. I kept coming back to them and nearly finished the whole plate. Satisfied in a way I have come to cherish whenever it happened in meals, and life.
Once we moved in together, I was determined to try and make these things. My boyfriend explained how tedious it could be, since they were so small and each had to be folded in a special, careful manner, almost like those paper fortune tellers I made when in elementary school (I never knew that was what they were called)…
He told me of his Turkish aunts and various other older women in his relatives’ house in Izmir, a coastal town about an hour from Istanbul. They would sit at a table for hours, dropping pea sized balls of meat or potato into acres of thin rolled dough traversed by neatly cut lines. I knew I would have to dress comfortably for this, put some good music on, and have a glass of wine nearby.
There’s no way to get around it–Manti are a day trip; however; here is the good news:
Other than the process of making dough and rolling it out (or using a pasta maker in shifts), and the assembly steps, everything else about Manti is very simple. The two sauces are primitively easy: the tomato sauce is only tomato paste and Aleppo pepper (which you can make yourself with paprika and red pepper flakes); and the butter sauce is browned butter, olive oil, and salt. The yoghurt component is simply garlic and the Turkish quarterback of spices: Sumac, which is like a tangy lemon spice.
So, off we went. We’ve made these Manti three times now: the first time, it took a long time. The second time, we made them the same day we first invited my Turk’s parents to our place, including his Turkish born father, which was exhausting. This time, we did it for A Quarrel of Feasts (and for our dinner). The even better news about Manti is that you can freeze them after making and they keep. You’d then just pop them in boiling water and prepare those simple sauces.
There’s a wives tale that, when your mother-in-law comes to dinner, you should fit at least 40 Manti in a spoon. (hint: you don’t have to do that. I didn’t! I went by the guide of making the dough roughly the size of a postage stamp. Most were…) At the heart of the sometimes tedious task and making homemade Manti are some of the most laid back, satisfying (there it is), and loving afternoons I’ve spent with my American Turk in our lovely home on a hill in South Brooklyn. The more you work at them, the more you are said to care. He’s told me that those same female relatives of his in Turkey say, the smaller the Manti, the more you love the guest you’re serving them to.
So, take your time. Sit at the table with someone you love. Enjoy every moment and take care of every Manti.
Turkish Manti (Dumplings)
Equipment
- Patience! Optional: Mixer with dough hook, pasta maker, dough cutter.
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 3 cups flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/4-1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
For the Filling
- 1 lb ground beef (or lamb)
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
- 1 tsp salt
For the Yoghurt
- 2 cups Yoghurt
- 2-3 cloves Garlic (minced)
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Drizzle Olive Oil
- Pinch Sumac Online: https://www.etsy.com/listing/780629008/turkish-sumac-natural?gpla=1&gao=1&
Tomato sauce
- 4-6 oz Tomato paste
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 1 cup Water
- 1 tbsp 1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper (you can make with 1.5 tsp paprika and 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes)
Browned Butter
- 4 tbsp Unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp Olive oil
- Pinch Salt
Additional Garnish
- Pinch Sumac
- Chopped Mint leaves (can use dried mint)
Instructions
For the Dough
- (I used my dough hook and stand mixer to make this dough to cut some time, but you can absolutely make by hand.) Add the flour and salt to the mixing bowl and crack the eggs into the center of a well as you would by hand.
- Begin using the dough hook on stir and gradually add the water until the dough begins to come together and the flour is nearly absorbed.
- Keep mixing with the dough hook on low speed for 8-10 minutes until dough is smooth.
- Keep mixing with the dough hook on low speed for 8-10 minutes until dough is smooth. Cut into fourths and wrap each in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or freeze if making ahead of time.)
Preparation of Meat Filling and Yoghurt Sauce
- Combine your meat, onion, parsley and salt. Set aside. Refrigerate until ready.
- Mix together yoghurt, garlic, salt, olive oil, and sumac. Refrigerate until making the other sauces.
Making the Manti
- Work with one fourth of dough at a time and keep the others refrigerated until needed so they stay fresh. I use a pasta maker to flatten out dough, but you can roll out by hand on a floured surface until very thin, but not see through.
- Slice each portion with a knife (I used a dough cutter) lengthwise and width wise so each manti square is roughly the size of a postage stamp.
- Add a small ball of meat to each square and touch opposing ends of dough together, following by the other two opposing ends of dough (like those paper fortune tellers of the 80's if you remember those…) Press each of the four seams together (I like to give the top a tiny twist to ensure closure.)
- Gather the manti on a baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Go through the same process with each fourth of dough (if you want to make less, you can freeze the meat mixture and the remaining dough.)
- When you are nearing the end of the process, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Once complete, bake manti for 15 minutes so they seal up. The manti can then also be frozen and saved, or you can just set aside to cool until ready to boil.
Prepare the Tomato/Butter Sauces
- Combine olive oil and tomato paste in a saucepan over medium low heat. Stir as it warms for about 5-7 minutes until the texture is even.
- Add the Aleppo Pepper and stir until incorporated.
- Remove from heat and add in the water, combining until the sauce is evenly thinned out to desired consistency.
- In a saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat. Add in the olive oil, mix, and swirl the pan around as the butter browns. Once the color starts to darken, take off of the heat.
The Big Finish
- Add the sealed manti to a pot of boiling water, lower the heat from high to medium/high and let boil for 10 minutes, until pasta is tender and inside is fully cooked.
- Drain the dumplings. Pour in serving bowl and add all but a few tablespoons of the butter sauce. Coat all the manti with the sauce.
- When serving, drizzle as much tomato sauce as you like, followed by a drizzle of additional butter sauce, a spoon of garlic yoghurt and sprigs of mint (or dry mint if using). You can sprinkle additional olive oil and sumac on top as well, if desired.
Notes
- You can prepare as many Manti as you want to, or as little. You can freeze the fourths of dough, the meat filling, or the manti once sealed in the oven. Then, you only have to boil them in 10 minutes! Making the browned butter, tomato sauce, and yoghurt each take minutes on their own and you can make smaller amounts as well (these parts of the recipe an easily be done by eye; measurements don’t have to be exact.)
- If you would like your dough to be utilized as much as possible, you can use a ruler to measure the lengths and widths. It depends on how exacting you want to be…
- You can substitute ground lamb for beef, or even potato (you might want to add garlic if using potato for a filling.)