Maakroun bil Toum
About this Recipe
By: Rachel
Most of the time, when you have a great dish, it’s love at first bite. You know in those first few mouthfuls that the dish is wonderful. You appreciate the flavors, the textures. You savor it.
Every once in awhile, it doesn’t hit you until later. Yes, the dish is good, you enjoy it, maybe you finish it, maybe you don’t. But it’s not until a few hours later, maybe the next day, that the nuances really hit you.
You start going over those flavors in your mind. What was that spice, again? What was that sour flavor? The dish was so sneakily complex, the flavor combinations so unexpected, that you start thinking about it—and craving it—far more than is reasonable.
That’s what happened when I had the Maakroun bil Toum at Mara, Gavin Kaysen’s wonderful restaurant at the Four Seasons in Minneapolis. The dish consists of what appears to be an oddball combination of flavors and textures that ultimately work beautifully together, and while I enjoyed the dish the first night I had it, it wasn’t until a day or two later when I really began to think about and appreciate the unique and thoughtful flavor combinations.
I went back the following weekend to have the dish again, at which point I had to recreate it at home because 1) I wanted to keep eating it over and over again and 2) eating at the Four Seasons is really expensive.
Let’s break the dish down:
At its heart, this is a pasta dish. When we think of pasta or gnocchi, most of us think of Italy–but maakroun is a simple, handmade pasta unique to the mountain villages of Lebanon. It contains just flour, salt, olive oil, and water, so it is naturally vegan, as is the sauce that accompanies it.
Toum, the sauce, is an emulsion of garlic and oil with a squeeze of lemon. It is easy to make, as Serious Eats editor Sohla El-Waylly demonstrates. There are several excellent brands of toum on the market if you prefer not to make your own; try your local Middle Eastern specialty market. Now, many grocery stores carry this good-quality toum.
This dish also features simply grilled or seared zucchini, which adds smokiness and freshness, ground cherries for sweetness and acidity, and duck pastrami, which adds a gamey, salty note to the dish (regular pastrami works well too).
The dish comes together by adding toum to a large bowl. Add in the hot, cooked maakroun and grilled zucchini, and toss to combine. The heat from these ingredients will take the edge off the intense raw garlic in the toum sauce. Then, stir in the pastrami and ground cherries. The result is an incredibly satisfying, flavorful, unexpected, and well-balanced dish that will have you coming back for more… and more… and more.
Maakroun bil Toum
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (175mL) warm water
- 1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- 1 large or 2 medium zucchini
- 8 ounces (225g) toum
- ¼ pound (115g) thinly-sliced pastrami
- 8 ounces 225g ground cherries (may be available as golden berries or cape gooseberries)
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Making the Maakroun (Lebanese Pasta)
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Make a well in the center, and add the water and 1 teaspoon olive oil.
- Using a silicone spatula (or your fingers), slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the inside out.
- The dough should begin to come together. If it is too crumbly, add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together without becoming sticky. (If it becomes too sticky, you will be able to remedy this during the kneading process).
- Knead the dough on a floured surface until it becomes smooth. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel, and allow to rest for 45 minutes before continuing.While the dough rests, continue preparing the other ingredients with Step 3 (below).
Step 2: Forming the Pasta
- Divide the dough into four balls, and roll into thin ropes.
- Use a knife to divide each rope into 1” (2.5cm) sections.
- Roll the small pieces between your palms to create an elongated shape. This pasta is meant to be rustic rather than uniform and perfect. Now use the dull side of a butterknife to press a groove into the center of each dumpling, which will help catch the sauce.
Step 3
- Cut the zucchini into quarters, then chop to create medium chunks. Sauté in the remaining tablespoon olive oil until browned, salt lightly, and set aside.
Step 4
- Tear the pastrami into medium pieces, and set aside. Halve the ground cherries, and set aside.Add the toum to a large bowl, and set aside.
Step 5
- Boil the dumplings in a large pot for about 15 minutes—the dumplings will float. Do not drain. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon, and immediately add to the toum.Toss gently with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, and allow to sit for 2 minutes (the heat from the pasta will take the edge off of the intense raw garlic flavor from the toum). Add the zucchini and pastrami, and toss again to combine.
Step 6
- Divide into serving bowls, and garnish each with golden berries. Serve immediately.
Beverage Pairing
By: Olivia
A wine of high acidity works best with this dish, as it cuts through the creamy and bold toum while being fresh enough to highlight the zucchini and ground cherries. Great white wine options would be Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. If you want to go a little fancy, a Chablis, made of Chardonnay, would be sensational. If the pastrami leaves you wanting a red wine, still aim for high-acid, refreshing wines like Pinot Noir and Grenache.
