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Pasta, rice and grains

Pierogi ruskie

Polish dumplings filled with potato, white farmer's cheese and fried onion, served with butter or sour cream.

Pierogi ruskie are half-moon dumplings of thin dough filled with mashed potato, twaróg (a white curd cheese) and onion fried in butter, then boiled and often pan-fried. They are one of the most popular foods in Poland, eaten in milk bars, at home and on Christmas Eve, topped with fried onion, butter or sour cream.

What goes in

Twaróg: 25%25%Potatoes: 30%30%Flour: 30%30%Onion: 10%10%Butter or sour cream: 5%5parts
  • Twaróg525%, Crumbly white curd cheese.
  • Potatoes630%, Boiled and mashed.
  • Flour630%, For the dough.
  • Onion210%, Fried in butter.
  • Butter or sour cream15%, To serve.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Knead Knead a soft dough of flour, warm water, a little oil and salt, and rest it.
  2. Step 2: Knead Mash boiled potatoes with crumbled twaróg, fried onion, salt and plenty of pepper.
  3. Step 3: Layer Roll the dough thin and cut into rounds.
  4. Step 4: Fill Place a spoonful of filling on each, fold and pinch the edges closed.
  5. Step 5: Simmer Boil in salted water until they float, then a minute more.
  6. Step 6: Fry Serve with fried onion and butter, or pan-fry until golden.
  7. Twaróg: 25%25%Potatoes: 30%30%Flour: 30%30%Onion: 10%10%Butter or sour cream: 5%
    Finished Pierogi ruskie, by share.

Ruthenian, not Russian

Ruskie refers to Red Ruthenia, the historical region around Lviv in today's western Ukraine and south-eastern Poland, not to Russia. The filling of potato and curd cheese is typical of that region. Ukrainian varenyky with a potato and cheese filling are close relatives, and the dumpling family runs across Central and Eastern Europe.

The filling

Twaróg is a fresh, crumbly cow's milk cheese, slightly sour, similar to quark or tvorog. Mixed with floury potato, it gives a creamy but light filling. Cooks argue about proportions: some prefer more cheese, some more potato, and the amount of pepper varies. Onion is fried slowly until sweet, and some is kept for the topping.

Where it is used

Christmas EveMilk bar lunchFamily meal

The cheeses in it

TvorogTwaróg, the Polish curd cheese in the filling.

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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