Comfort food means something different for everybody. Once Ania from the blog Strawberries from Poland wrote that for her comfort food would be soft, melting dishes. It’s something that you would eat when you are sick, that brings childhood memories. I need to agree with Ania. And by the way if you have a moment visit her blog, Ania makes beautiful, simple photos and the same kind of food, I love her style and personality, it’s so simple but still strong.
So when I think about comfort food, I think about lazy dumplings or simple mash potatoes.
I told you that as a child I could live eating only bread and potatoes (and some butter with them).
Poland is a great place to live is you love potatoes. There are so many different types of Polish kluski (dumplings): pierogi, pierogi leniwe (lazy pierogi), kluski śląskie, kopytka, pyzy ziemniaczane, knedle, cepeliny, kartacze, etc. These are only types, we are not even talking about stuffing. Most of them use flour, eggs, and potatoes.
This dish is called kopytka (lit. small hoofs) in my family, however at Tomek’s they would call it pierogi leniwe (lazy pierogi) and kopytka would be reserved for dumplings with no cheese in them.
My grandma always made them. They are simple, you just mix boiled potatoes, twarog (quark cheese or ricotta), eggs, salt, pepper and enough flour to be able to shape it, then you just put it into boiling water until they flow out.
There are at least two options to shape it, either nice hand-cut size like the ones you can see in the photo or lazy version. My grandma would take a spoon of dough and throw it into the water with no shaping process. I was really easy to please child, so of course, I preferred the lazy one as it was much softer and I would get these small crumbs.
I would always eat a savory version with melted butter and toasted dry breadcrumbs, but you can eat it with mushroom sauce or ragu.
You can make the sweet version by adding some vanilla sugar into the dough and then you can eat it with cream, sugar, and cinnamon.
If you have a picky child, you may want to try serving this dish, as it’s children friendly.
Polish lazy dumplings (Kopytka with cheese / Pierogi leniwe / Kluski leniwe)
Based on recipe from White plate blog
Ingredients
- 200 g quark cheese or ricotta or twarog
- 300 g potatoes, boiled and mashed
- 1-2 eggs
- salt
- 5 Tbsp flour (the amount will depend on the dough stickiness)
- melted butter and toasted dried breadcrumbs to serve
Directions
Mash cheese and potatoes together. Add eggs, salt and a few tablespoons of flour. Mix it together.
You should get the dough that doesn’t stick to your hands, but it is still soft. Shape it into logs, flatten it with your hand and cut into stripes. Mine was approx. 1x5cm.
Boil water with a pinch of salt in a pot.
Add dumplings and cook them around 2-3 minutes until they float to the top.
Remove them with a slotted spoon.
Place on a plate and sprinkle with toasted breadcrumbs and pour over with melted butter.
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