Yalancı Mantı (Turkish Pasta)

Have you ever longed for a dish you’ve never had before? That’s the way I felt the first time I saw Turkish pasta flash across my TikTok “for you” page. It looked so cozy, creamy, savory, and tangy that I thought, “Oh, this dish has it all.” And to top it all off, every single video mentioned how quickly it all came together. The first time I tried making it myself, it ended up being even better than I had hoped.

Yalancı Mantı (also called Turkish pasta) means “fake dumplings.” It gets its name because the pasta is a shortcut version of Turkish mantı, a delicious time-consuming dumpling dish filled with spiced meat and finished with a Turkish pepper sauce and garlicky yogurt. The cheat version employs pasta and quickly sautéed beef or lamb to avoid the tedious task of forming and folding dumplings. It’s also called Kıymalı Makarna, which means “minced meat pasta.”

I tried several different versions before landing on my ideal dish. To break down what goes into Yalancı Mantı, the bowl starts with some undressed short pasta. Top that with a generous dollop of Greek yogurt mixed with lemon and garlic. Then you spoon over spiced beef or lamb that you’ve cooked with onions and Turkish pepper paste until deeply browned and crispy in spots. Drizzle that with some paprika butter, and top with fresh cherry tomatoes, chopped parsley, and a little dried mint. 

It might sound like a whole lot of nuanced, layered flavors — and it is — but in reality all of this comes together in about the amount of time it will take your water to come to a boil and cook your pasta. It’s so rich and cozy, but the bright yogurt sauce and fresh toppings keep it from feeling too heavy. It sounds too good to be real, but this is one of those rare times that it’s not! Not to be dramatic (reader, I’m about to be so dramatic), but this pasta is my dream come true.

• Dinner, fast! A filling, well-rounded meal in less than 30 minutes? Don’t tempt me with a good time.
• Comforting, but not heavy. With the seasoned ground meat and paprika butter sauce, this is a hearty meal — but the lemony garlic yogurt keeps things light, tangy, and balanced.

• Ground meat: You can use either ground beef or lamb. The key is to cook the meat and onions until deeply browned and crispy in spots.
• Spices: Sweet paprika, garlic powder, and ground cumin come together to bring big flavor to the meat. You’ll also bloom some of the paprika in melted butter to create a quick, easy sauce. Ideally, you’ll use a paprika variety labeled “sweet,” but regular paprika will work as well.
• Turkish pepper paste: While you can use tomato paste instead (they have a very similar texture), if you seek out a jar of mildly spicy Turkish pepper paste, I think you’ll find yourself adding it to all sorts of stews, braises, and sauces.
• Butter: Melt butter with paprika and Turkish pepper paste to make a quick, flavorful sauce.
• Yogurt: Stir grated garlic and lemon juice into Greek yogurt to spoon over the pasta. This balances out the richness of the ground meat and butter sauce.
• Tomatoes: Fresh cherry tomatoes add a burst of juicy freshness to the bowl. Plus, the concentrated flavor of little tomatoes means even greenhouse-grown, out-of-season tomatoes will taste good.
• Dried mint: Although optional, the dried mint is so refreshing and rounds out the flavor profile nicely. It’s worth it!

• Add crumbled feta on top before serving.
• Sprinkle with a little sumac or smoky Turkish Urfa chili.
• Sprinkle with chopped roasted pistachios.
• If you just bought a jar of Turkish pepper paste for this recipe, you can use it in other recipes in place of tomato paste for a little touch of heat (I plan to use some in my next batch of spaghetti Bolognese).
• Use chopped fresh mint leaves instead of dried mint.
• You can use ground turkey or a meatless ground instead of beef or lamb.