Etli Makarna

The pasta is finished in the meat and broth with the lid on, so it swells taking up the liquid rather than water.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, beef stock.

Ingredients

• 350 g short pasta
• 400 g minced beef
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 tablespoon hot red pepper paste
• 60 g butter
• 700 ml hot beef stock
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• 200 g thick yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes

Method

1. THE PASTA IS FINISHED IN THE MEAT AND BROTH WITH THE LID ON, so it swells taking up stock rather than water. It is not boiled and drained and then sauced. Dry pasta goes straight into the pan with the browned mince, hot stock is poured over to just cover, the lid goes on, and it cooks fifteen minutes until the liquid has almost gone. What comes out is pasta that tastes of beef all the way through, coated in a glaze rather than sitting in sauce, with no sauce left in the bottom of the pan. Boiled separately and mixed, the pasta tastes of pasta and the sauce slides off it.
2. THE STOCK IS MEASURED AND ONLY JUST COVERS. Seven hundred millilitres to three hundred and fifty grams of pasta -- twice the weight, roughly. Too much and it is a soup that has to be drained, which pours the flavour away; too little and the pasta is chalky in the middle with no way to add more without loosening what has formed. It is checked at twelve minutes and a splash added if needed.
3. THE MINCE IS BROWNED HARD AND THE PASTES FRIED WITH IT. Over a high heat until it catches, then the tomato purée and pepper paste in for two minutes until they darken. That is the only browning the dish gets, and the fifteen minutes of covered simmering afterwards adds no colour of its own.
4. IT IS STIRRED ONCE AND THEN LEFT. Stirred as the stock goes in, and then not again until the end. Repeated stirring releases starch and the dish turns gluey; left alone, the starch stays in the pasta and the liquid reduces to a clean glaze.
5. IT RESTS FIVE MINUTES OFF THE HEAT WITH THE LID ON. The last of the liquid is absorbed in that five minutes and the pan comes clean of sauce. Served straight away there is still a puddle, and it looks and eats like an under-reduced stew.
6. THE BUTTER GOES IN AT THE END AND IS SHAKEN THROUGH. Sixty grams, in off the heat, the pan shaken rather than stirred until it melts into the glaze. It is what makes the coating glossy.
7. The butter -- a knob of it -- melted and the onion softened 8 MINUTES.
8. The mince added over a HIGH heat and browned hard 10 MINUTES until it catches.
9. The tomato purée and pepper paste in for 2 MINUTES, until darkened. The cumin and seasoning added.
10. The DRY pasta tipped in and turned through once.
11. The hot stock poured over to JUST COVER and stirred ONCE.
12. LID ON, simmered 15 MINUTES over a medium-low heat. NOT stirred again.
13. Checked at 12 MINUTES and a splash of stock added only if it has gone dry.
14. Taken off the heat, the remaining butter added, and the pan SHAKEN until it melts through.
15. RESTED 5 MINUTES with the lid on.
16. TESTED: there should be no liquid in the bottom of the pan, and the pasta should be glossy and taste of beef throughout.
17. Served with yoghurt and Aleppo pepper.

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