Makarounes
“Karpathos hand-rolled pasta dressed with deeply caramelized onion and crumbled sour goat cheese — three centuries of poverty turned into a wedding dish.”
Where it comes from
Makarounes belong to the small Dodecanese island of Karpathos, particularly the mountain village of Olympos, where they remain a wedding dish and Sunday staple. The pasta is hand-rolled into short rope shapes using only flour, water, and salt. The defining touch is the toppings: olive oil fried with sliced onion until caramel-dark, then crumbled sour goat cheese (sitaka) blanketing the top.
On the plate
Hand-rolled short pasta in a brown-butter onion sauce, topped with a snow of grated mizithra cheese. The pasta has finger-pressed dimples that catch the butter — this is hand-craft showing in every bite.
How it works
Karpathos's makarounes are made by pinching small dough pieces and dragging them on a board — the imprint creates a textured surface that holds 3× more sauce than smooth machine-extruded pasta. Mizithra's whey-cheese sharpness cuts the onion sweetness.
Variations
Karpathos uses caramelized onions and mizithra; Crete uses anthotyro and skips the deep onion caramel; Rhodes adds a dusting of cinnamon — Aegean pasta with island variations.
On the Palate
Ingredients
How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓
How it's made
6 steps · Show ↓- 130 min
Mix 300g wheat flour with 1 tsp salt and enough warm water (~150ml) to form a stiff, smooth dough. Knead 8 minutes; rest covered 30 minutes.
- 25 min
Pinch off marble-sized pieces. Roll each into a thin rope about 5cm long, then press gently with three fingertips to make a slight curve — the classic Karpathos shape.
- 38 min
Cover the formed pasta with a cloth while you work. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
- 48 min
While the water heats, slice 2 large onions thin and fry slowly in olive oil over medium-low heat until deeply caramel-dark and almost crispy (25-30 minutes). Salt at the end.
- 58 min
Boil the pasta for 4-5 minutes until just tender. Drain, reserving a splash of cooking water.
- 62 min
Mound pasta into bowls, spoon over the caramelized onion and its dark oil, top generously with crumbled goat cheese, and serve immediately.
