A Polish friend recently hosted a day of pierogi making. She invited all the foreigners in our International Book Club. We made this ruskie filing, as well as a sweet filling, and a cold beet soup.
This was the first time I’ve made the pierogi ruskie with potatoes, onion and cheese. Many assume that ruskie means this is a Russian filling, but that’s not the case. The dish orginates from an area of Ukraine that at one time was part of Poland. It translates to Ruthenian pierogi.
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It would be really difficult to choose, but this may be my favorite. You can’t beat the combination of flavors, and the filling has enough body that it’s easier to work with. You can make a plump little dumpling and stretch the dough around the potato mixture without it oozing out.
A Swede, two Americans, and our Polish teacher
I’ve compared making pierogi to make tamales back in Arizona. It’s labor intensive, and makes more sense when you’ve got a large group of people to work on it – making the dish perfect for extended family gatherings and holiday meals.
For the most authentic pierogi, try making your own Twarog, Polish farmer’s cheese. It’s really easy! I hope you and yours have fun making pierogi!
Smacznego!
Lois
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The most popular pierogi ever, potato with cheese and onion!
Ingredients
for filling:
- 6 small potatoes, boiled, peeled, and riced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup diced onion
- 1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese (this is the closest stateside substitute for Polish farmers cheese)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- salt and pepper, to taste
- smoked bacon, diced, for garnish
for dough:
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 cup boiling water
Instructions
for filling:
- Place riced potatoes into a large bowl
- Sautee onions in butter until light brown
- Lightly toss potatoes, with onion, cheese, soy sauce, and seasonings until combined
for dough:
- Place the flour on a clean work surface
- Add the salt
- Make a well in the top of the flour and add the egg.
- Work the egg into the flour
- Slowly add the water to the flour mixture, mixing it in as you go
- Knead dough until smooth
to assemble:
- Brown bacon and reserve
- Roll the dough out very thin, approx 1/16 inch
- Cut into round circles using a glass or a cookie cutter
- Add a spoonful of the filing to the center of each circle, compacting the filling
- Fold the dough around the filling, sealing the edges, creating a half circle or crescent shape
- When all of the the pierogi are filled, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, cook the pierogi for use a few minutes
- Serve with butter and bacon
My other versions of pierogi:
Skip the Maggi seasoning. It is basically just MSG and sweeteners and the pierogi are better without it.
Advice from an old Babcia.
100% right about the Maggi and soy sauce. The traditional homemade ruski pierogi recipe never calls for it. However, if it is a question of personal taste, then the variation should be clearly mentioned in the recipe.
Thanks for the input, Elie! 🙂
I second Anonymous, Maggi is bad. Stick to soy sauce – or maybe some bouillion cubes (broth)?
I love pierogi – the ones I’ve had were Russian and they are fried/baked.
Your labor intensive process reminds me of when I attempted dumplings, not too long ago. They were good but not something to do often – takes too long!
I love pierogi. This version sounds amazing. It’s so nice that the people are teaching you local cooking.
thanks for your review! 🙂 I **LOVE** Perogies! I will try your recipe, as I’m starting a lot of home made stuff now. I made home-made pasta last night! 🙂 Great blog posts you have!! I’ll try to follow in your foot steps! Here’s my blog post at Elsie Hui
The best pierogi I have ever tried were in Warszawa (Poland). I can’t remember where exactly but probably it was in the one of small restaurant in old part of city. great!
Instead of ricotta cheese, try farmer’s cheese. We have it here in NJ in just about every supermarket (and polish store). Our family uses that when making pierogi.
Zanap !! What is farmer’s cheese ? Does it have the same consistency ? Is there another name it’s called ?? I live in Arkansas . And not the same as Chicago my native town !!
Farmer’s cheese is called Twarog in Polish, but some people call it dry cottage cheese. Ricotta is probably close. It’s not difficult to make. You could easily find the ingredients: https://polishhousewife.com/twarog-polish-farmers-cheese/
I would use drained small curd cottage cheese bc the ricotta is too mild. I would also add cream cheese and blend. It would make a better tasting consistency. Actually I do add cream cheese to my farmer’s cheese mixture. I also add whole milk nstead of water to make the dough. Yumm
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I am so happy to have found this post! I currently buy my pierogi frozen at the store, which is a poor excuse for a pierogi. I am determined to make my own, and your recipe looks to be the best by far. Can’t wait to take on this little project this weekend!
When I worked at the New York State Museum, we had an 8-week class entitled “New York Cooks. We featured seven NY State cuisines (Shaker, Native American, Italian, German, Dutch, French Canadian, and Polish). Chefs from each tradition came to the class and talked about their cuisine and, for the 8th class, all the chefs returned and made one dish to share. It was a day-long class and, in addition, we each brought something from our family’s tradition to share. The Polish chef brought pierogi ruski, and so did one woman from class! (Hers were better by far!) I hope to make yours soon!
Hahaha, I love to hear of the home cook shining!
This is very similar to my husbands grandma’s recipe! The first time I tried making them it took like 6 hours and I cried!! Now I’m down to about 4 and that includes frying which my husband usually does! I’ll have to try your recipe next! However, I do have to say it’s been pretty easy finding farmers cheese here in Michigan!! Maybe it’s more common these days!
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It’s a labor of love, that’s for sure!
I don’t recommend making all those circles ahead as shown on photo above. I highly recommend doing one at a time and things will go much, much easier especially if you have a helper. I help my wife by spooning in the filling as she closes them up.
These look very good…
My mom and aunties always made a piero gi. With dried cottage cheese and chives as ND sugar. They were boiled and then fried in a large skillet in bacon grease I think. Has anyone ever heard of or made these?
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Today I made Twaróg (Polish Farmer’s Cheese), using your recipe. Since there are only two of us I didn’t want to make a full batch of Pierogi Ruskie so I made a full batch of the dough… but only half of the recipe for the filling. Then I made some sweet cheese pierogi with the remaining dough and farmer’s cheese. The cheese was the best. The Pierogi Ruskie filling was so flavorful… loved it. Will definitely make all of the above again!
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Sounds fantastic! Thanks for your comments!
Used to make my pierogi with my grandmother, mother and aunt.
My mother always used four types of cheese in the potato ones. She used farmers cheese, cheddar, cream cheese and parmesan. They really had a wonderful rich flavor. Lots of the home made ones taste like chasta (dough) and mashed potato.
P.S. home made farmers cheese is very, very easy to make. I believe it is milk and vinegar.
My grandma’s recipe was frying the onions in salt pork and adding that to the potatoes and farmers cheese. I added cream cheese, to the mixture, which made the filling even richer!!
I do need to ask, where does Soy Sauce come into play, in an authentic, Polish Pierogi recipe??
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JoAnn, my Polish friend used Maggi in her filling, soy sauce was her suggested substitute. It might be difficult to find in the US, and a self identified babcia has suggested I leave the Maggi out because it was mainly MSG. So I guess it’s an evolving authentic Polish recipe.
Hi, JoAnn!
Great recipe, looks fantastic.
I believe in Russia it is called “varenyky”
Russians make their pierogi in the oven, they are pies.
Yumm!! I can’t wait to try this recipe out! Thanks so much for sharing!
Soy sauce for Pierogi – There is NOT such a thing .Not at all in Polish tradition.
I get that, Basia. All I can say is my friend, Gosia, liked to add it instead of Maggi.
When I made pierogi with my aunt she put about two tablespoons of bisquick in the flour,it made the dough nice and light.