Meliz Berg’s One-pot Minced Lamb and Conchiglie Pasta
Featuring tender minced lamb and plenty of halloumi, this simple Turkish Cypriot one-pot pasta couldn't be easier to make.
From the book
Meliz’s Kitchen: Simple Turkish-Cypriot comfort food and fresh family feasts
Comforting and easy go-to meals for busy family life
From breakfasts and traditional stove-top dishes to barbecue recipes and crowd-pleasing desserts
A celebration of the melting-pot of delicious spices and fresh flavours that make a Turkish-Cypriot kitchen
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Introduction
Although I grew up watching and assisting my mum in the kitchen making endless numbers of börek (fried and baked pastries), there are some beautiful ‘shortcut’ recipes that we also cooked at home, and this is one of them. Some call this yalancı mantı (‘liar’ dumplings), where dry conchiglie pasta takes the place of freshly made dumplings and traps the cooked minced lamb in and around its perfectly shaped shells. What’s even better is that this pasta dish is all cooked in one pan and topped with a dollop of thick garlic yoghurt and a pul biber butter, the same flavours that appear in my Kıymalı Gül Böreği (Rose-Shaped Filo Meat Pies, pages 169-70 of Meliz’s Kitchen).
Ingredients
| 1 | chicken stock cube |
| 1.2 litres (2 pints) | boiling water |
| 3 tbsp | olive oil |
| 2 | onions, finely chopped |
| 1 tsp | ground cumin |
| 1 tsp | paprika |
| 1 tsp | tomato purée |
| 500g (1 lb 2 oz) | minced lamb |
| ½ tsp | salt |
| ½ tsp | ground black pepper |
| 300g (10½ oz) | conchiglie pasta |
| 2 | bay leaves |
| 100g (3½ oz) | halloumi cheese, finely grated |
| 1 tsp | dried mint |
| For the garlic yoghurt: | |
| 1 | large garlic clove, finely grated |
| 150g (5½ oz) | thick set natural yoghurt |
| ½ tsp | sea salt flakes |
| For the chilli butter: | |
| 45g (1½ oz) | unsalted butter |
| 1 tbsp | extra virgin olive oil |
| 1 tbsp | Turkish sweet red pepper paste (tatlı biber salçası) |
| 1 tsp | pul biber |
| 1 tsp | dried mint |
Method
Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water in a heatproof jug and leave to one side.
Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the onions. Soften for 10–12 minutes until they turn a lovely light golden-brown colour. Add the cumin and paprika to the softened onions, stir well so that the spices release their aromatics, then stir through the tomato purée, ensuring that the onions are fully coated. Add the minced lamb to the pan, breaking it down with the back of a wooden spoon and stirring it through the other ingredients. Increase the heat a little, season with the salt and pepper and brown the meat for 4–5 minutes. Add the pasta to the pan with the bay leaves and stock, stir, bring to the boil, then reduce to a medium simmer for 10–12 minutes. Stir a couple of times as it cooks, being careful not to break apart the pasta shells.
For the chilli butter, melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, then add the olive oil. When it starts to sizzle, stir through the sweet red pepper paste, pul biber and dried mint. Let it just start to bubble, then remove from the heat.
Once the pasta is cooked through (but still al dente) and the liquid has reduced remove the pan from the heat and give it a gentle stir. Combine the halloumi and dried mint in a small bowl. Serve the pasta on plates with a sprinkling of the halloumi and mint mixture, a dollop of the Garlic Yoghurt and a drizzling of the Chilli Butter.
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