RECIPE: Persian makaroni with tahdig from Salamati!

Salamati is a heartwarming story of resilience, homesickness and good Persian cooking in 70 glorious recipes. This book is a gateway to Persian culinary culture, with recipes that are simple, celebratory and appealing, flexible and full of flavour. Wherever you live and whatever your background, you are invited to join the feast.

This is a culture-clash dish using spaghetti, which we – confusingly – call makaroni. I love Italian pasta dishes but I have to say we might have even improved on the original by adding a golden, crunchy potato tahdig to the recipe.

People mostly eat this dish at home. It wasn’t something that my mum made but I had a friend called Mahyar and I would always ask him when his mother was making makaroni so I could come over and eat it! This dish brings back childhood memories, just not family memories.

A very thin angel-hair spaghetti is best for this dish. You can easily leave out the meat to make a vegetarian version.

Persian makaroni with tahdig

Serves: 4-6
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• 1½ cups (375 ml) olive oil
• 4 brown onions, diced
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 300 g (10½ oz) minced (ground) beef
• 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), diced
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste (concentrated purée)
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 300 g (10½ oz) button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) angel-hair spaghetti
• 1 potato, cut into 5 mm (¼ inch) thick slices
• Khiar Shoor (see below), to serve

Method

Heat ½ cup (125 ml) of the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or until soft. Add the turmeric and pepper and stir to combine, then add the beef, capsicum, tomato paste and tomato and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the mushroom and salt and cook for another 10 minutes or until the mixture is thick and reduced. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Cook the angel-hair spaghetti until al dente, then drain and mix the pasta through the sauce.

Heat the remaining oil in a non-stick wide shallow saucepan over high heat. Add the potato and spread out the slices in an even layer to cover the base of the pan. Add the pasta and sauce, then cover with a lid wrapped in a clean tea towel, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.

To serve, carefully invert the saucepan onto a serving dish to reveal the potato tahdig. Alternatively, divide the pasta among plates and serve with the tahdig on the side.

Enjoy with khiar shoor.

Khiar shoor (Persian pickled cucumbers)

Khiar (cucumber) shoor (salty) is what we call the cucumber pickles that are an essential part of Persian cuisine. We add them to sandwiches and salads, such as olovieh, and they’re ever present as snacks at the start of a meal. Their tart crunch also means they’re an excellent side dish with kotlets, kuku sibzamini and Persian macaroni.

My mother used to make these with firm, almost seedless, Persian cucumbers; if you can’t find those you should look for pickling cucumbers.

Prep Time: 15 Mins
Preserving Time: 1-4 Weeks
Makes: About 1kg

Ingredients

• 1 cup (250 ml) white vinegar
• ¼–½ cup (70–145 g) salt
• 2 cups (500 ml) boiling water (as needed)
• 1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) Persian or pickling cucumbers
• 3 bird’s eye chillies, chopped
• ½ cup (30 g) chopped dill fronds
• 1 whole garlic bulb, cloves peeled
• ½ cup (15 g) chopped celery leaves

Method

Combine the vinegar, ¼ cup salt and boiling water in a large heatproof bowl, stirring to dissolve the salt. Taste and add more salt if desired. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Tightly pack the cucumbers into a 2 litre (68 fl oz) sterilised glass jar (see Tip) with the remaining ingredients, and cover with the pickling liquid, filling to the rim of the jar. Seal with the lid and give the jar a shake, then open it up to release any air and top up with more pickling liquid if necessary.

Seal tightly and place at the back of the pantry for 1–4 weeks, shaking the jar every week. The longer you leave the cucumbers to pickle, the more flavoursome they will be. Once opened, store the pickled cucumbers in the fridge or the pantry where they will keep for up to 6 months.

Tip: To sterilise glass jars, rinse the jars and lids three times in boiling water. Allow to air dry.

— Salamati by Hamed Allahyari, Dani Valent (As told to) (Murdoch Books) is out 20 September.

Salamati

Hamed's Persian kitchen; recipes and stories from Iran to the other side of the world

by Hamed Allahyari, Dani Valent (As told to)

A heartwarming story of resilience, homesickness and good Persian cooking in 70 glorious recipes.

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