Opinion – Recipes from Marcão: Five-ingredient ravioli is simpler than saying the name of Polish stars

My son, like half of Brazilians, is collecting the World Cup figurines. The Poland national team page impresses with its unpronounceable names: Szczesny, Grzegorz, Krzysztof.

Luckily, Polish cuisine is much simpler than the local language. As in all of northern Europe, the diet is heavily based on cereals and tubers — plants that withstand the extreme cold in that part of the world.

Pierogi combine the two elements: they are wheat pasta ravioli stuffed with potato. It only takes five ingredients if you don’t count the seasoning.

If you think a huge redundancy of carbohydrates, look at the Brazilian lunch. A typical PF takes rice, beans, farofa, fries and, in some regions, pasta.

In the pierogi filling, the potato is seasoned with caramelized onions and cheese can be added to make it even tastier. Typically, the pastries are served with more of that same golden onion.

There is no space here to teach how to make homemade pasta, so I propose the use of industrialized lasagna pasta, the kind you buy at the supermarket. It’s good for the expense. If you know how to open pasta, so much the better.

To shape the pierogi, use the mouth of a glass or other kitchen utensil that serves as a circular mold. Then you put the stuffing with a spoon and close the dough holding it in the palm of your hand, in the shape of a half moon.

Pierogi are typical of Poland, Ukraine and Russia. In some of these regions, they are called Vareniques. This is how the pasteizinhos are more commonly known in São Paulo, where they arrived with the Jews from Eastern Europe; in Paraná, which has a large Polish Catholic population, the name pierogi predominates.

Potato filling is the most common, but there are also versions with pork, ricotta and cabbage. The pierogi can also be served with mushroom sauce and sour cream.

pierogi

Yield: 4 servings

Difficulty: medium

INGREDIENTS

4 potatoes

2 large sliced ​​onions

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

200 grated steppe or standard Minas cheese

500 g fresh lasagna noodles

Salt and black pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Cook the potatoes until completely soft.
2. While the potato cools, brown the onion over very low heat in the butter. It is a procedure that can take half an hour or more.
3. Peel and mash the potatoes. Mix with half of the onion (reserve the other part) and the cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
4. With the mouth of a glass, cut the lasagna noodles into circles. Hold each circle in the palm of your left hand (if you are right-handed) and with your other hand, place 1 tablespoon of the potato filling. Close the pastry in a half moon, squeezing the edge well so the filling doesn’t escape.
5. Cook the pierogi in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes. Heat the remaining onion and distribute it over the cooked pastries.