Slowly cooked goat with thick macaroni - Getting back to the roots...

A delicious traditional recipe which can be found in various areas of Greece with minor differences from region to region. In the long past, goat used to be a common and rather popular type of meat. Later on, for some reason, it was rather forgotten from the majority of households especially in the big cities. The exception was when it came to "boiled goat" (a broth type of soup) or a few other 100% traditional recipes in some regions. The truth is that goat meat is quite tough because of the age of the animal and it needs plenty of slow cooking (in Greece, referring simply to "goat" we mean the older animal otherwise it is called "goat-kid" for the young ones which are more popular thanks to their tender meat) and maybe this was one of the reasons most people were put off... As I've mentioned before it seems that the Greeks have started going back to basics regarding some forgotten ingredients or recipes which for years were rather dismissed by most of us as "low" or "peasant class"... Who said that a crisis can only bring bad consequences??....

Slightly adapted from a recipe of Nicki Mytarea,
"Cook Book" magazine of "ETHNOS" newspaper

Ingredients (for 4 people):
1 ½ Kg of goat meat (front legs or breast)
1 ½ Kg of thick macaroni (Bucatini is a good choice if you can't find thicker type)
2 bay leaves
4-5 whole cloves
4 whole allspice berries
1 tsp of black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick (or 1 tsp of fresh thyme)
200gr. of aged (dried) Myzithra cheese, grated (or Greek Kefalotyri cheese or other hard/salted cheese)
180gr. of butter (preferably of goat's milk)
salt
pepper

Method:
Rinse the meat well, put in a large pot and cover with plenty of cold water.

Add all the spices (and the thyme if used) in the pot, cover with the lid and slowly boil the meat in medium-low heat until it is really tender. Take out of the pot with a slotted spoon and debone the meat.

Clean the pot and dry well. Melt half of the butter in the pot and slightly sauté the meat in medium heat- gently stirring with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper and leave aside in the pot.

In another pot boil the pasta according to your preference and drain in a colander. Keep the pasta warm and drizzle with some olive oil so the macaroni doesn't stick together.

Melt the rest of the butter in a small non-stick frying pan in medium-high heat until it starts getting a golden brown colour.

Place the macaroni in a large serving dish (or individual plates) and on top place the meat pieces.

Pour over with the hot butter, sprinkle with plenty of grated cheese, season with pepper and serve immediately.