Cimcik Erişte

Each piece is pinched at the middle between finger and thumb, one at a time, into a bow.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

the pasta

• 400 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 80 ml water
• 7 g salt

to serve

• 300 g thick yoghurt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 80 g butter
• 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon dried mint

Method

1. EACH PIECE IS PINCHED AT THE MIDDLE BETWEEN FINGER AND THUMB, ONE AT A TIME, INTO A BOW. That pinch is the whole dish and it cannot be done in bulk: a small rectangle of dough is laid across the fingertip and squeezed hard in the centre so the middle becomes thin and gathered while the two ends stay flat and flare. Six hundred of them for six people, by hand, which is why this is made at a table with company and not on a weeknight. Cooked, the pinched waist stays firm and chewy while the flared ends go tender, so every piece has two textures. A cut square of the same dough has one.
2. THE PINCH HAS TO BE FIRM ENOUGH TO ALMOST MEET. Squeezed until the dough is nearly through, not just dented. A timid pinch opens out in the boiling water and the piece relaxes back into a flat rectangle -- which is the commonest complaint and is entirely a matter of pressing harder.
3. THE DOUGH IS DRIER AND STIFFER THAN A SHEET PASTA'S. Eighty millilitres of water to two eggs and four hundred grams of flour, kneaded until it is genuinely hard work. A soft dough will not hold a pinch; a stiff one takes the shape and keeps it.
4. THEY ARE PINCHED FROM DOUGH THAT IS KEPT COVERED, A FEW AT A TIME. The cut rectangles dry out fast, and a dry piece cracks at the waist instead of gathering. Everything not being pinched stays under a cloth.
5. THEY ARE BOILED FRESH, NOT DRIED. Three or four minutes in well-salted water. Unlike the cut noodles on this site, these are made and eaten the same day -- the pinched waist is delicate and a dried one snaps there rather than softening.
6. THE YOGHURT IS SPOONED ON COLD AND THE BUTTER POURED OVER HOT. Garlicky cold yoghurt onto the hot pasta, then foaming pepper butter over the top, so there are three temperatures in the bowl. Mixed together into a warm sauce, the yoghurt loosens and it becomes a different and duller dish.
7. The flour and salt mixed with the eggs and water to a STIFF dough.
8. Kneaded 15 MINUTES -- hard work -- and rested, covered, 40 MINUTES.
9. Rolled out to about 2 mm and cut into small rectangles roughly 2 cm by 3 cm.
10. The rectangles kept UNDER A CLOTH, a few taken out at a time.
11. EACH ONE laid across a fingertip and PINCHED HARD at the middle between finger and thumb, until the dough nearly meets, so the ends flare.
12. Set on a floured tray, not touching.
13. Boiled in well-salted water 3 to 4 MINUTES, FRESH.
14. Drained and divided between bowls.
15. The yoghurt beaten with the crushed garlic and a little salt and spooned on COLD.
16. The butter melted until foaming, the Aleppo pepper and mint stirred in off the heat, and poured over HOT.
17. TESTED: each piece should still show a pinched waist after boiling. Flat rectangles mean the pinch was too gentle.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes