Tomato & Green Lentil Noodle Soup with Croutons

Green lentils play off a tomato broth fragrant with anisey purple basil in this warming soup from Kars province. Packed with chewy noodles and served with a scattering of butter-crisped croutons made from the noodle dough, it makes a satisfying one-dish meal.

This soup is a testament to the province’s interconnectedness with the Caucasus, from where immigrants began arriving in the 1800s. In Kyrgyzstan, a similar soup is made with lamb. The rough, wide noodles are similar to handmade noodles in Central Asia.

If you’ve never made noodles, this is the perfect dish with which to start. The dough is incredibly forgiving—easy to mix and roll out—and the noodles are meant to be unevenly shaped. While you could use a pasta machine, it’s almost as quick to cut the noodles by hand.

This soup improves with time in the refrigerator or freezer, but the noodles should be added (and the croutons fried) shortly before serving. If you make the dough ahead of time, you can cut the noodles and croutons while the soup cooks and have it on the table in under an hour.

Preparation time: 1¾ hours

Serves 4 as a main course

·    For the dough

·               2½ cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading

·               ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

·               1 large egg

·               1½ cups tepid water, or as needed

·    For the soup

·               4 tablespoons (¼ cup) unsalted butter or olive oil, or a combination

·               1 medium onion, diced

·               1 medium carrot, peeled and diced

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped, juices reserved, or one 15-ounce can tomatoes, chopped, with their juices
• 1 teaspoon Turkish or other crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 1 heaping tablespoon dried purple basil (or substitute 1 tablespoon dried regular basil plus 1 teaspoon ground anise)
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste, mixed with ¼ cup warm water
• 1 small potato, peeled and diced (optional)
• 1 cup flat green or brown lentils, soaked overnight, or Le Puy lentils, unsoaked
• 7 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• Dried purple or regular basil, for serving (optional)
• Crushed red pepper flakes, for serving

1. Make the noodle dough: Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and break in the egg. Use your finger to break the yolk and to mix it with the white, then mix the flour and egg, turning the bowl as you pull the flour in from the sides and pressing the mixture together with the heel of your hand until it is relatively dry and crumbly. Add the water ¼ cup at a time, mixing the ingredients together after each addition, until the dough is somewhat firm; a finger pressed into it should leave an imprint. Very lightly flour your work surface, turn the dough out, and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, and up to 24 hours.

2. Make the soup: Heat the butter and/or oil in a 5-quart pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and salt and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes with their juices and cook, stirring, until they soften and break down almost to a paste, 8 to 10 minutes.

3. Add the red pepper flakes and stir until they color the other ingredients in the pot, about 2 minutes. Add the basil (or basil and anise) and stir once, then add the tomato paste mixture, the potato, if using, lentils, and hot water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the lentils are soft and the broth tastes rich and tomatoey, 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the variety of lentils (Le Puy lentils will cook more quickly). The soup should be thick but not so thick that it cannot accommodate the noodles; if necessary add water ¼ cup at a time to attain the correct consistency. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.

4. Form the croutons: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Cut off about one eighth of it; rewrap the rest and set aside. Roll the small piece of dough into a rope ¼ to ½ inch thick. Lay it on your work surface and press your fingers or the heels of your hands along its length, flattening it as you go. Cut into ½-inch pieces and set the croutons aside on a lightly oiled plate.

5. Form the noodles: Unwrap the rest of the dough and divide it in half. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to flatten and stretch one of the pieces until it is about ⅛ inch thick. Don’t worry if the dough is of uneven thickness or an odd shape. To cut the noodles, place the side of your left hand about ½ inch in from the upper edge of the dough (vice versa if you are left-handed) and use it as a guide to cut noodles approximately ½ inch wide. Move your guiding hand across the dough, cutting as you go, until you’ve cut it all. Don’t worry if your noodles are uneven in size, some long and others short, some wider or narrower. Mound the noodles on your countertop or a plate, sprinkle lightly with flour, and toss. Repeat with the other piece of dough.

6. Bring the soup to a boil and add the noodles. Cook at a medium simmer, stirring occasionally to make sure that the noodles cook evenly, until they are tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes.

7. While the noodles are cooking, fry the croutons: Melt the butter with the oil in a small skillet over low heat. Add the croutons and cook, stirring and turning, until they crisp, puff up, and become golden; don’t let them brown. Remove to a paper towel to drain.

8. Serve the soup in wide bowls, scattered with the croutons. Pass dried basil, if you like, and red pepper flakes at the table.

Handkerchief Noodles with Blue Cheese & Butter :

This recipe is from Toptaş, a village some fifty miles north of Kars city, where one cool June evening, a housewife named Ayşe and her neighbors cooked a feast that included these silky noodles sauced with lots of butter and Ayşe’s own blue string cheese.

Some Kars cooks top the noodles with butter-browned onions, while others sauce them with yogurt and butter-sizzled red pepper flakes.

Because the dough is so easy to work with, this dish can be the center of a relatively quick weeknight meal—if you make the dough ahead. Kars cooks cut their pasta by hand, but you can use a pasta machine.

Preparation time: 1¼ hours

Serves 4 as a main course

·    For the pasta

·               3 cups (16 ounces) bread flour, plus more for tossing the pasta

·               1 teaspoon fine sea salt

·               2 large eggs

·               ⅓ cup water, plus more as needed

·               8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

·               1½ cups crumbled blue cheese (about 6 ounces)

·                       A handful of coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)

·                       Turkish or other crushed red pepper flakes, for serving

1. Make the noodles: Mound the flour in a large wide bowl or on a work surface. Sprinkle over the salt and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into the well and mix the yolks and whites with your finger or a fork, then mix the flour with the eggs by drawing it into the center of the well with your hands, a fork, or a dough scraper; the mixture will be crumbly. Sprinkle the water over and rub or cut it in. Continue to add water a tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition, until the dough holds together but is not sticky; you may need to add up to an additional ⅓ cup water. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead the dough just until it is smooth, about 5 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.

2. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece as thin as possible with a floured rolling pin (or use a pasta machine). Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 1½- to 2-inch squares. Put the cut noodles on a baking sheet. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour over the noodles and toss lightly.

3. Bring a 5-quart pot of water to a boil. Add the noodles and boil until they rise to the surface and are al dente, about 5 minutes.

4. While the noodles are cooking, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and heat until it sizzles. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

5. Drain the noodles and transfer to individual serving bowls. Top with the cheese and pour the hot butter over. Garnish with the parsley, if using, and serve immediately, passing red pepper flakes at the table.

Green Rice Pilaf :

On a frigid, snowy afternoon, this pilaf, more spinach then rice was a welcome sight amongst the rich stews and hearty roasts on the lunchtime steam table of Kristal Lokantası in Kars city. Spinach and peas are best friends, so if I have baby peas in the freezer, I sometimes sprinkle a handful over the top of the pilaf for the last five minutes of cooking.

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Serves 4

·                   3 tablespoons unsalted butter

·                    1 small onion, minced (about ¼ cup)

·                   1 teaspoon fine sea salt

·                    Freshly ground black pepper

·               1½ pounds spinach, washed and drained, tough stems removed, and cut into ½- to 1-inch-wide strips

·               1cup small or medium-grain rice, such as CalRose, Baldo, or medium-grain basmati, washed and drained

·               1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, sprinkle over the salt and a few grinds of black pepper, and stir to coat the onions. Lower the heat, cover the pan, and sweat the onions for 5 minutes.

2. Raise the heat to medium, add the spinach, and toss for 2 or 3 minutes to wilt. Add the rice and stir it into the spinach. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low, and cook until all the liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and fluff the rice with a fork. Drape a clean kitchen towel over the pan, replace the lid, and set the pilaf aside for 10 minutes. Serve hot.

beef & potato köfte in tomato & carrot sauce:

These köfte are studded with chunks of potato and napped in a tomato sauce sweetened with carrot. Dried purple basil, a much-loved herb in Turkey’s far eastern regions, lifts the dish with its notes of anise. This recipe is modeled on the comforting köfte I’ve enjoyed on several occasions at Kristal Lokantası, in Kars city.

There are several ways to ensure that your köfte are moist and tender. First, use ground meat with at least 20 percent fat. The more fat, the better; ask your butcher to add a few scraps of extra fatty meat, or just plain beef fat, if he or she will grind meat to order. Overhandling the meat makes for tough, chewy köfte, so do as Turkish köfte makers do: incorporate the seasonings into the meat with a knife instead of kneading them in with your hands or grinding them in a food processor. And use a light touch when forming the köfte. Wet or oiled hands will prevent the meat from

sticking to your palms. Don’t squeeze or press the meat into shape; form each köfte as gently as if you were handling an egg.

Preparation time: 50 minutes

Serves 2 generously as a main course, or 3 to 4 with a side dish

·    For the köfte

·               1 medium waxy potato, peeled and cut into small dice

·               1 pound ground beef (20% or more fat)

·               1 small onion, minced (about ¼ cup)

·               1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon crushed dried purple basil (or substitute 1 tablespoon dried regular basil plus 1 teaspoon ground anise)

·               1 teaspoon fine sea salt

·    For the sauce

·               4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

·               1 large carrot, peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced into ¼- to ½-inch-thick half-moons

·               1 teaspoon tomato paste

·               1 cup hot water

·               1 large ripe tomato, halved crosswise and grated on a box grater

·               ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

·               1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Make the köfte: Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Add the potato and cook until tender but not mushy, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, and blot dry with a paper towel.

2. Spread the ground beef out on a cutting board. Scatter over the onion and sprinkle over the basil (or basil and ground anise), crushing the basil between your fingers as you sprinkle it, then add the salt. With a large chef’s knife, make horizontal cuts across the surface of the beef and seasonings, using a rocking motion to work your way from left to right (or right to left). Turn the cutting board 90 degrees and repeat (you’ll be making a crosshatch of cuttings). Then slide the blade of the knife under one short edge of the meat and fold one third of it over toward the center; repeat from the opposite edge. Turn the cutting board 90 degrees again and lift and fold the meat over again from the left and right edges to the center. You should now have a compact “envelope” of meat. Gently pat the meat out across the board and repeat the mincing and folding once. Pat the meat out again, scatter over the potatoes, and mince and fold one last time.

3. Lightly oil a platter or baking sheet and set out a small bowl of water. Wet your hands and gently roll heaping tablespoons of the meat mixture into köfte 1¾ to 2 inches in diameter and place them on the platter.

4. Make the sauce: Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the carrot slices and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and hot water and stir to dissolve the tomato paste. Add the grated tomato and salt, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently, uncovered, until the tomato is soft and the sauce starts to thicken, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the parsley and stir once.

5. Add the köfte to the pan in a single layer. Bring the sauce to a simmer again, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Cook, turning the köfte every few minutes or so, until they are cooked through and the sauce is thick, 15 to 20 minutes. Add more water 2 tablespoons at a time if, during cooking, the sauce threatens to stick. Serve hot.