Making mantı

I spent this morning making mantı, a sort of Turkish ravioli, with my host family. It's a very delicious and filling dish, but takes a lot of time and patience to prepare, as each ravioli is about the size of a dime.

I had barely finished breakfast when my host mother brought me into the kitchen to start mixing the meat filling and kneading the dough. The ingredients are very simple, but the whole process of preparing the dish took us a few hours. After I finished the dough, we split it into three pieces and began rolling out each one into a very thin circle. That circle was cut into square-inch pieces, and on each one we placed the tiniest amount of the filling (a mixture of parsley, onion, and ground meat). We then folded up each square into a four-cornered pocket and twisted it closed on top. After letting them dry, my host mother boiled them while we made the yogurt and tomato toppings. The yogurt is mixed with some water and garlic, and goes on the mantı under the tomato sauce, a combination of oil, water, tomato paste, and mint. We had frozen mantı the other night for dinner, and these fresh ones were much better. I'm hoping to make them once I get back to New York, if I can find the place in my kitchen and enough friends/slaves willing to help. Any volunteers?