Pierogi: a delightful, warm comfort food, hailing from Eastern Europe, more specifically Poland. These hand-made boiled dumplings go by different names across the region like varenyky and pyrohy, but globally, they are simply known as pierogi.
According to the BBC, the origins of pierogi are murky, but the food dates back to at least 1682 when a recipe for veal-stuffed pierogi was published in Poland’s earliest-known cookbook, “Compendium Ferculorum albo Zebranie potraw.”
In the centuries that followed, love for pierogi transcended class borders, and different variations of the dish arose. Meat-filled pierogi and fruity dessert pierogi are both common, but the most popular kind of pierogi is known as “pierogi ruskie,” and is filled with potato and cheese.
I followed Amelia Nierenberg’s New York Times Cooking recipe for pierogi ruskie, and the pierogi turned out mild and comforting. I began by making the dough: a simple combination of flour, water, butter, egg and salt. While I let the dough rest, I made the filling, which is tasty enough to eat on its own. I mashed a few boiled potatoes and combined them with cheese, caramelized onions, salt and pepper. Next, I rolled out the dough and cut it into small circles, adding the pierogi filling and pinching the edges of the pierogi as I went.
After I had assembled all of my pierogi, I boiled them for a few minutes and served them with extra caramelized onions. The pierogi were cheesy with a warm, almost sweet flavor from the caramelized onions.
Overall, this dish was delicious but quite time consuming. Katy Cywilko ’25 agrees, saying “When we don’t have the energy to make them ourselves, we purchase them from Grand Polish Bakery.”
Cywilko also reflected on her favorite memories of eating pierogi: “My favorite tradition is making pierogi every Christmas! I remember one year we made about 50 of them, and ate pierogi for a few days straight.”
