Classic pierogi ruskie with bacon and sour cream
The way a Polish grandmother makes them: a soft sour-cream dough, a filling of potato, farmer cheese and butter-fried onion, the boiled pierogi fried again in butter until golden and piled with crisp bacon, onions and sour cream. Shown here as the comparison for the lighter rebuild.
Want a more filling version?Pierogi ruskie with golden onions and cucumber salad 58- Time
- 95 min (60 prep + 35 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 839 kcal
- Protein
- 29 g
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
- 6 tbsp warm water water
Filling
- 1 lb 2 oz russet potatoes
- 1 cup farmer's cottage cheese, full-fat twaróg or farmer cheese
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
To serve
- 4 slices, cooked crisp (about 3 1/2 oz raw) bacon, diced
- 1 medium white onion, sliced
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2/3 cup sour cream
Steps
- Boil and mash the potatoes. Fry the chopped onion in the butter until golden, then mix it, butter and all, into the potato with the farmer cheese, salt and pepper. Cool.
- Knead the flour, egg, sour cream, melted butter and warm water into a soft dough, rest 30 minutes, roll thin and cut 9 cm (3 1/2-inch) rounds. Fill each with a heaped tablespoon, fold and pinch closed; you should get about 32.
- Boil the pierogi in batches in salted water until they float, plus 2 minutes, and drain.
- Fry the bacon until crisp, then the sliced onion in its fat until golden. Fry the boiled pierogi in the butter until golden in spots.
- Serve topped with the bacon and onions and a big spoon of sour cream.
Good to know
Boiled or fried?
Both are classic. Many Polish families boil them for dinner and fry the leftovers the next day.
What cheese do I need?
Polish twaróg, a dry, crumbly curd cheese. Farmer cheese is the nearest match; well-drained cottage cheese works in a pinch.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 190
- Protein
- (14%)
- 6 g
- Fat
- (45%)
- 9 g
- Carbohydrates
- (42%)
- 20 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 263 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 3356 kcal goes into the pot and 1848 g of ingredients comes out as about 1770 g of food: 190 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.