Cooking Recipe Cottage Cheese Vareniki
Recipe Ingredients
Directions
Source: The Good Cook - Pasta, 1980 (Traditional Ukrainian Cookery)
Serves: 6
NOODLES:
Dough: First mix flour with the salt. Combine the egg, milk and
cottage cheese in blender. Stir combination into the flour and salt
and knead to make a soft dough. Cover and let the dough stand for 10
minutes.
Filling: In a bowl, combine the cottage cheese with the egg, and
season to taste with salt. The filling should be thick enough to hold
its shape in a spoon.
Roll the dough quite thin on a floured board. Cut rounds with a large
biscuit cutter or with the rim of a glass. For speedier work, the
dough may be cut into 2 - 2 1/2 inch squares. Put a round or square
of dough on the palm of your hand. Place a spoonful of the cheese
filling on the dough, fold it over to form a half circle or triangle,
and press the edges together with your fingers. The edges should be
free of filling. Be sure that the edges are sealed well to prevent
the filling from running out. Place the vareniki on a floured board
or a kitchen towel (don't crowd them), and cover with a kitchen towel
to prevent drying.
Drop a few vareniki at a time into a large quantity of rapidly boiling
salted (optional) water. Do not attempt to cook too many at a time.
Stir very gently with a wooden spoon to separate the vareniki and to
prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Continue boiling
for 3 4 minutes. Vareniki are ready when they are well puffed. Remove
them to a colander and drain thoroughly. Place in a deep dish,
sprinkle generously with melted butter, and toss very gently to coat
them evenly with butter. Serve in a large dish without piling or
crowding them. Top with bread crumbs. The traditional accompaniment
is sour cream or crumbled bacon, or both.
An additional egg or egg yolk, or some thick sour cream, may be used
in the filling if the cottage cheese is very dry.
<< Joyce Monschein >>