It is now a long time since I wrote an ‘on location’ article, but thank God finally I managed to travel again. Being now back to Turkey after 9 long months of waiting, it’s time to eat lots, and write about one more staple of Turkish cuisine, the mantı. They are often translated as ‘Turkish ravioli‘, but in fact mantı has a broad meaning, describing many different types of stuffed pasta, including the Italian ravioli.

Still, when it is not specified which mantı are meant, when you see just the word mantı on the menu, then the most common ones are meant – small pasta parcels (smaller than ravioli!) with a minced meat filling (there exist also other types of fillings, including vegetarian).

The Turks seem to have taken the idea of stuffed pasta from the Chinese many centuries ago, adapted it, and the mantı became a part of Ottoman palace cuisine at latest in the 15th century.

The most common, and famous, version are Kayseri mantısı, the mantı from the city of Kayseri: boiled mantı formed as small bundles (the only acceptable form for Kayseri mantısı, but generally mantı can be made in various shapes!), topped with yoghurt and a spicy red sauce, with or without garlic depending on your choice, like the ones in the pictures above. Quite often you can also encounter çıtır (Bodrum) mantı – the same but the mantı are fried to a crispy state, or firinda (or tepsi) mantı, oven-baked ones. I tried all these three types and can’t say which is my favourite. But I can say – they are all really a lovely, tasty alternative to the internationally more famous Italian ravioli and tortellini or Chinese wontons and jiaozi.

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