Middle Eastern Pasta With Yogurt and Pine Nuts

This is a kick go-to recipe, my mom used to make it all the time when we were kids and we still love it. My additions are that I add 2 TBSP of Tahini (sesame paste) to the yogurt, a dash of lemon, and a bit more garlic than in this recipe. Use a thicker spaghetti or a thin linguine. Also, and this is the BEST tip that makes it yum yum delicious...you want to drain the pasta, and then put it back in the pot and add the yogurt...mix a bit of meat in with the yogurt and heat it through. It tastes sooo much better than when its just cold. Top with the meat and you're ready to go. Its so delicious!

This is not authentic to my country, for it simple makes a traditional less serious. We are using curry, variety peppers, and pignoli, and garlic is considered incorrect with yoghurt, especially when homemade. I believe the edition of green onion, true curries, and zatar spice will make this meal closer to true Middle Eastern recipe, if tabouhli must be used instead of italian pasta!! Thank you, Vahjiin

I have been making this recipe for over 30 years. All my five sons were raised on it and it is a family favorite to be sure. It is so delicious and refreshing! One thing we do differently is that we toast the pinenuts (in a pan on the stove) and do not add them in with the beef, instead they are sprinkled over the top of the dish. That way they have a roasted taste and stay crunchy. We also top the dish with fresh chopped Italian parsley. It really adds freshness to the taste. And we keep a bowl of plain yogurt on the table if anyone needs to refresh their dish. You can be sure that there were heaps of this delicious entree piled high on my boy's plates.

This is a great recipe with few changes. It is also very authentic (my Jordanian boyfriend makes the same thing). Increase finely minced garlic to 4 cloves and season generously with salt and pepper. I cooked 1/2 medium onion chopped with meat. Instead of cooking the pine nuts with the meat, I use silvered almonds and fry them in the frying pan alone and sprinkle at the end (this will keep the nuts to be crunchy). I also like to garnish with copped parsley. With these changes, the past is amazing, flavorful and so creamy. (its hard to believe that it's all yogurt! no cream or butter!)

My husband is from Syria and he disagrees with the previous reviewer. This dish is very authentic Syrian cooking. I added half a white onion and cooked it in the oil before adding the minced meat. We really enjoyed this dish and it was very easy to make. The garlic breath effect stops this one from being enjoyed during a romantic evening in though!!

I was disappointed. Sounded great made it for a friend who loves this kind of cuisine. It was ok.... Very bland. Maybe ok as small side dish, but definitely not main dish. Not worth keeping the recipe or making again.

Two quick points: a) It IS bland, regardless of whether it tastes good or not. The way you can spruce it up is as follows: 1. Be a bit generous with the salt and garlic (while mixing it with the yoghurt before adding the pasta) 2. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of mild hot sauce (not tabasco or anything strong, closer to louisiana hot sauces) 3. Keep in mind: this is a cold dish. The only hot ingredient here is the meat and pine nuts. The rest- including the pasta- should be refrigerated. and b) If you want to do without the 37 grams of fat, replace the 2 tablespoons of corn oil with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, use only half a cup of pine nuts, and use low-fat yoghurt. This brings it down to the 20 gram range. Enjoy!

This was not good. It was bland and the yogurt cooled everything down to make lukewarm pasta. I don't understand why folks like this.

Holy cow! This was WAY better than I thought it would be! I omitted the pine nuts, used ground turkey and whole wheat pasta and added a sprinkle of parm cheese and lemon zest! Like I said, HOLY COW! Really great!

I don't know what one of the reviewer, who gave 1 star was talking about when he/she mentioned garlic doesn't go with yogurt. I live in the Middle East and that is very much the case. Curries is mainly in Indian/Pakistani Dishes not so much in Middle Eastern. There is another recipe on here which uses the same ingredients except for meat and that's also excellent!

Very good. I wanted to try something Georgian just because I'd never sampled food from that area of the world and wanted something that used a different pallet. this was good and easy to make from ingredients available in the US!

needed more garlic, pasta too hard, and kids didn't like the looks of it (at least one of the kids) another disaster!

I totally omitted the extra oil in this recipe, as I felt it was unneeded. When I made this, I wanted a warm sauce, so I browned the garlic in the pan I cooked the beef in and then added the yogurt to it. I think it would work fine with a cold sauce as well. I also used an extra clove of garlic and added a little more salt and pepper to the sauce.

We really liked this dish. To be honest, we did 'tweak' the recipe based on what we had in the house. We used EVOO instead of corn oil (mainly because it is healthier), crumbled tofu (spicy, gave a nice kick), whole grain wide noodles (in the cupboard). We also added sliced mushrooms & crushed dried mint leaves in lieu of pine nuts.

This recipe was great! I was a little unsure with the raw garlic in the yogurt, but it turned out really good. Every once in awhile there was a little too much in a bite, but I didn't mind. I also used 2 garlic cloves because we love garlic.

I added a lot more garlic, cooked diced onion with the ground beef. I heated up the yogurt and added a dash of curry sauce. Everyone loved it.

This is a great dish for a quick and healthy meal for kids and adults. I make this dish at least a couple times a month. I would have rated this recipe five stars if seasoning and onions were added into the meat while cooking. I alternate between organic ground beef and chopped chuck steak. Ground beef is usually much easier to prepare. I first sauté one finely chopped onion in frying pan and then add beef. I add a clove of minced garlic to the beef onion mixture and continue to sauté. As it is cooking I add a couple dashes of allspice, salt and pepper. This makes the dish a lot tastier. You can also garnish this dish with a little parsley. This dish is also great for dinner parties. A easy meal to prepare with a lot of flavor.

I had not heard of this particular recipe and it did catch my eye! It is delicious. I did add some "Allspice" and a touch of lemon juice to the meat - lamb- while cooking.