Polish recipe
How to make Pierogi
pierogi
All of Poland
Half-moon dumplings of soft dough, boiled and often then fried in butter. Favourite fillings include potato with curd cheese and onion (pierogi ruskie), sauerkraut with mushrooms, minced meat, or sweet fruit in summer.
Ingredients
- For the dough: 400 g plain flour, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons oil, a pinch of salt and about 180 ml warm water
- For the filling: 500 g floury potatoes, peeled
- 250 g curd cheese (twaróg) or drained cottage cheese
- 2 onions, finely chopped, and 2 tablespoons butter or oil
- Salt and plenty of black pepper
- Sour cream and extra fried onion to serve
Method
- Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, drain well and mash. Fry the onions gently in the butter until golden. Mix the potatoes, cheese and half the onions, and season well with salt and pepper. Let the filling cool.
- Mix the flour, egg, oil, salt and water into a soft, smooth dough. Knead for 5 minutes, cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough thinly on a floured table and cut out circles about 8 cm across with a glass.
- Put a heaped teaspoon of filling on each circle, fold it in half and pinch the edges firmly closed.
- Cook the pierogi in batches in a large pan of gently boiling salted water. When they float, cook for 2 more minutes, then lift out with a slotted spoon.
- Serve hot with sour cream and the rest of the fried onion, or fry them briefly in butter first.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Pierogi already appear in the oldest surviving Polish cookbook, published in Kraków in 1682. The word comes from an old Slavic root meaning 'feast'.
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