ETHNIC COOKING : The Cultured Bow Tie

“I love seeing people enjoy the food I cook,” said Bella Carpou as she laid out grape leaves for stuffing, sauteed meatballs, prepared filo dough for baklava, and browned butter for a pasta sauce.

Several hundred people not only enjoyed Carpou’s dishes but learned how to prepare them. It happened during cooking demonstrations at the annual Greek festival held in September by St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church at Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia.

One of the most unusual was Manti-- pasta bows tossed with garlic-infused yogurt, topped with browned butter and sprinkled with cracked pepper. Although simple in terms of ingredients, the dish is very rich. Carpou serves it as an entree, accompanied by warm sourdough bread and zucchini cooked with tomatoes, onion and a dash of lemon juice.

Carpou, who lives in La Crescenta, is a pattern maker for a large garment company. She was born in Brooklyn, but her Greek parents came from Izmir in Asia Minor (now Turkey), where Manti was common. “We grew up on it,” Carpou said. Yet the dish is not known throughout Greece, and Carpou has encountered few Greeks in California who have heard of it. (Food historians believe the Turks brought Manti west a thousand years ago, having adapted it from the Chinese dumpling mantou .)

The original procedure was to fold homemade pasta around a bit of seasoned lamb. “You could substitute plain meat ravioli, I suppose,” Carpou said. “But I like it meatless. That’s the trend.”

MANTI (Pasta With Yogurt Sauce)

16 ounces whole milk yogurt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 pound bow-tie pasta

1/4 cup butter

Freshly ground pepper

Combine yogurt with garlic in bowl and let stand until room temperature. Cook pasta in boiling salted water until tender but firm. Drain. Toss pasta with yogurt until evenly coated.

Heat butter until golden brown. Pour butter over pasta, then grind pepper over top. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Note: Salt may be added to yogurt mixture, if desired.

Each serving contains about:

391 calories; 755 mg sodium; 22 grams cholesterol; 16.5 grams fat; 48 grams carbohydrate; 11 grams protein; .03 gram fiber; 38.% calories from fat.