Levantine cuisine · Meat & Kebab

Kafta bi Shanklish

Lamb kafta meatballs baked in the oven under tomato slices and tangy shanklish cheese.

Ingredients · for 4 servings

• 600 g ground lamb
• 1 onion
• 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tsp baharat
• 200 g shanklish (or aged feta as substitute)
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 100 ml water
• Salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C top/bottom heat; grate the onion very finely, squeeze out the juice slightly and finely chop the parsley.
2. Knead the ground lamb with onion, parsley, baharat, salt and pepper vigorously for 3 min. until the mixture binds, and shape into 16 walnut-sized balls.
3. Brown the balls in a pan with 2 tbsp olive oil over high heat for 4 min. all over and arrange tightly side by side in a baking dish.
4. Stir the tomato paste with the water, the remaining olive oil, salt and pepper and pour between the balls.
5. Cut the tomatoes into 5 mm thick slices, arrange them overlapping like roof tiles, crumble the shanklish coarsely over the top and bake for 25–30 min. until the cheese shows browned spots.
6. Let the dish rest for 5 min. so the juices settle, and serve straight from the dish with warm flatbread.