On a business trip to Istanbul several years ago, I was introduced a Turkish culinary treat –a steaming bowl of manti, tiny dumplings, nestled in garlick-flavored yogurt and drizzled with peppery oil. I was intrigued by their diminutive size. As I was eating Manti with Garlic Yogurt Sauce and Peppery Oil, I studied each spoonful of manti carefully, trying to figure out whether the four-cornered shape was formed by machine or by hand. My Turkish host, noticing my scrutiny of those minute pillows of savoriness, told me they were hand-formed, and that Turkish cooks vied for recognition as the maker of the smallest manti. I did not know at the time I was enjoying my first bowl of manti that size does matter, and it is an excellent indicator of what the host thinks of you. The smaller the manti the more respected you are. A local legend suggests that they should ideally be small enough to fit 40 on a spoon!
Since childhood, I’ve always been fascinated by stuffed dumplings – Ukrainian varenyky, Polish pierogi, Italian ravioli and tortellini, Chinese wonton, Russian pelmeni, Japanese gyoza, and Georgian khinkali. I made them in various shapes, sizes, and with different fillings. I boiled, steamed, baked, pan-fried, or deep-fried and sauced them, and my family relished every version. Eventually, I realized the dumpling world was vast and diverse, and that there were many more stuffed dumplings to taste and cook. So, when I discovered manti, I decided they would be my next dumpling challenge.
I left Istanbul with several manti recipes from Turkish friends to try at home, and later researched Turkish and regional cookbooks. The recipes were straightforward, incorporating readily available ingredients, but the described technique for forming tiny manti appeared to require a dexterity that I doubted I possessed. Several cookbooks suggested that a novice cook can form manti into simple dough triangles or pouches if the classic shape is too difficult. I was intimidated by these recipes and stashed them away for another day.
Even though I postponed my manti challenge, I was curious about their origin. I learned that manti probably originated in Northwest China, possibly from Uyghurs, during the Mongol Empire in the 13th-14th centuries C.E. Over centuries, manti were dried and carried by traders, nomads and travelers along the Silk Road and became incorporated in local cuisines through Central Asia to Turkey.
Within the geography that ranges from China following the Silk Road all the way to Anatolia, dumpling, or ‘Mantı’ as we know it in Turkish, take on many different names and shapes, made with various fillings and served with various sauces. For Turks ‘mantı’ is a dish, boiled, sometimes fried sometimes steamed, dumplings with sauce, which you eat with a spoon, and it is a complete dish on its own.
The root of Turkish ‘mantı’ can easily be traced by the examples existing in the vast geography of Turkic Central Asia and Caucasus. This wide geographical spread indicates a deep-rooted shared culinary heritage. **
The historic trek of these dumplings piqued my curiosity, and I knew I had to make them. My Turkish host said that manti were a special occasion dish made by experienced cooks, but more often collectively by family members and served at family gatherings. Making manti requires commitment, she said. But a bowl of lamb-filled dumplings, cushioned in tart yogurt and topped with drops of savory oil, is worth the effort and embodies love.
I studied the various manti recipes and discovered an American shortcut to making manti — using purchased wonton wrappers. Although I was tempted to experiment with Gabrielle Hamilton’s wonton manti recipe,*** I wanted to prepare a dough closer to original Turkish recipes. Keeping the dough ingredients the same, I expedited the process of making these Manti with Garlic Yogurt Sauce and Peppery Oil by using a stand mixer and pasta machine to knead the dough and to roll it out into a paper-thin sheet rather than preparing it entirely by hand.
Once I rolled out the thin dough sheets through the pasta machine, I cut the dough, using a homemade cardboard template, into even squares, added the filling and sealed the manti in assembly-line fashion. Surprisingly, once all ingredients are at hand, shaping manti into star-shaped pillows is not tricky, but it takes over an hour to shape 78 little dumplings. So, next time, a cooking companion would be handy.
When I prepare this recipe again, I will spread the preparation over a few days. The dough, garlic yogurt sauce, and spicy oil can be prepared ahead and refrigerated, but should be brought to room temperature before cooking the manti. Manti can be cooked fresh on the day they are made, or par-baked for a tighter seal and then cooked or frozen for future use. I opted for the latter version, par-baking the manti and cooking some immediately and freezing the rest for another meal.
Turkish recipes suggest cutting the dough into 1-inch (2.5 cm) to 1½-inch (3.8 cm) squares. I decided to use 1 ½-inch (3.8 cm) square for each manti, which were relatively tiny and challenging to fold and seal. The resulting 1-inch (2.5 cm) square manti are much larger, about 5 to a spoon, than the ones I enjoyed in Turkey, where they come in all sizes. But, as the adage goes, practice makes perfect. For my next challenge, I will experiment with smaller squares of fresh dough or wonton wrappers to create tinier manti.
These Manti with Garlic Yogurt Sauce and Peppery Oil, although not as small as those in Istanbul, are silky, tender, and comforting. The rich taste of lamb, garlic yogurt sauce, garnished with drops of orange-hued peppery oil is delectable. Now I understand why these ancient dumplings continue to appeal seven centuries after their westward trek began and why making manti is an embodiment of love.
Afiyet Olsun! (which in Turkish means Let there be appetite!)
Manti with Garlic Yogurt Sauce and Peppery Oil
For the dough:
Dough ingredients
2 cups (278 g) bread flour, plus more for dusting
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs
1-2 tablespoons cold water, optional
½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, more for greasinf
For the garlic yogurt sauce:
Garlic yogurt sauce ingredients
14 ounces (396 g) plain whole milk Greek yogurt
3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
½ teaspoon sea salt, more to taste
½ tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
For the filling:
Filling ingredients
7 ounces (198.45 g) lean ground lamb
1 small onion (about 2 tablespoons), grated or very finely chopped, with juices
½ teaspoon minced parsley
¼ teaspoon sea salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the peppery oil:
Peppery oil ingredients
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
tablespoon tomato paste or Turkish red pepper paste (Biber Salçası)
2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper ****
2 teaspoons fresh mint, plus more for serving
1 teaspoon sumac, plus more for serving
1 to 2 tablespoons of water, if needed for pourable consistency
Preparing the dough: Beat the eggs in a small bowl until they are foamy. Combine flour and salt in a bowl of an electric mixer. Add eggs, water and oil, and knead with a dough hook for 5 minutes. If the dough is not coming together, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until it does. Continue kneading for an additional 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Ready dough
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic film and set aside for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preparing garlic yogurt sauce: Combine yogurt, salt and oil in a medium bowl. Grate the garlic over the yogurt and whisk until smooth and blended. Cover and set aside at room temperature. After 1 hour, taste, adjust salt, and grate more garlic for an assertive sauce or add more yogurt if the garlic taste is too strong. (Traditionally, this sauce has a strong garlic flavor.)
Preparing the filling: In a large mixing bowl, combine lamb, onion with juices, parsley, salt, and pepper and knead thoroughly until a paste-like consistency. Set aside in the refrigerator to firm up for 1 hour.
To expedite filling manti, shape the filling mixture into tiny meatballs, ¼ teaspoon each, (about the size of a chickpea). Arrange on a small baking sheet and refrigerate.
Filling meatballs
Shaping and cooking manti: On a lightly floured surface, working with one piece of dough at a time (while the other pieces are covered with plastic) cut the dough into 4 pieces and roll each piece as thin as possible (1/16th of an inch – 1.7 mm is ideal) with a rolling pin or pasta machine. (If using a pasta machine, roll the dough through all settings.)
Rested dough, ready for rolling
Trim the edges of the pasta sheet into a rectangle using a knife or pizza cutter and cut into 1½ inch (3.8 cm) wide strips. Stack the strips on top of each other and cut them into 1½-inch (3.8 cm) squares. Cover dough squares with plastic wrap while working with the remaining dough. You should have 80 or so squares.
Making manti
Lay out dough squares on a lightly floured work surface (keeping remaining squares covered with plastic film to prevent drying) and place one filling meatball in the center of each square. Bring the two opposite corners of the dough together and press them to join at the top. Then, bring the remaining two corners together to the top and carefully moisten with a very narrow pastry brush or cotton swab. Pinch the side seams to adhere, enclosing the filling and sealing the seams securely. Now you have a four-cornered star-like square dumpling. Lightly push down on each manti to flatten the base. Continue until the filling runs out. (Leftover dough squares may be dried and cooked as pasta for another meal. Leftover filling can be pressed into burger shape and pan fried for the cook’s treat.) Arrange manti on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Manti ready for baking
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190 °C ). Toast manti on the baking sheet in the oven until they begin to color, about 12–15 minutes. Baking seals and firms the manti.
Once cooled, the manti may be cooked for serving, or transferred to a Ziploc bag or air-tight container to store in the freezer for no more than 1 month.
When ready to eat, bring salted water to a boil in a large pot over high heat. Add fresh or frozen manti to the boiling water and stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the pot bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 6- 8 minutes, or until the manti are tender and soft. Drain and return the cooked manti to the pan, then remove it from the heat. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil to prevent sticking.
Preparing peppery oil: Heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering. Add pepper paste or tomato paste. Stir in Aleppo pepper, mint, and sumac. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, strain, and discard the solids; keep the clear oil warm.
Cooked peppery oil
Serving manti: Spoon the garlic yogurt sauce on a warm serving dish. Arrange the cooked manti on top and drizzle with spiced oil. Garnish with mint and sumac, if desired.
This recipe makes 78 dumplings—twelve manti per serving.
Serves 6.
*Ghillie Başan, Classic Turkish Cookery, Tauris Parke, New York, 2005.
José Andrés, Zaytinya– Delicious Mediterranean Dishes from Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon, HarperCollins Publisher, New York, 2024.
Greg and Lucy Malouf, Turquoise—A Chef’s Travels in Turkey, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2007.
** Aylin Tan and Fuchsia Dunlop, Mantı and its journey from China following the Silk Road, presented at Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in 2012.
***Gabrielle Hamilton, Prune: A Cookbook, Random House, New York, 2015.
****The Aleppo pepper has a moderately hot taste with some fruitiness and mild, savory undertones. The pepper is named after Aleppo, an ancient city along the Silk Road in northern Syria, and is grown in Turkey. It is available online. A mixture of sweet paprika and cayenne pepper, with a 4:1 ratio (sweet paprika to cayenne)is a good substitute.
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Photo credits: All photos: Slava Johnson
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