toasted buckwheat groats coated in egg and cooked fluffy, then tossed with deeply browned onions and bow-tie pasta, the comfort dish of the Ashkenazi Jewish kitchen of Poland, Ukraine, and Jewish America
Origin: Poland (Ashkenazi)
From the journey of Buckwheat.
Kasha varnishkes is one of the great comfort foods of the Ashkenazi Jewish kitchen, carried from the Pale of Settlement, the lands of Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine, to the tables of Jewish America, where it remains a fixture of the deli and the holiday meal. It marries two staples of the Eastern European poor: kasha, the toasted buckwheat groats beloved across the Slavic world, and the noodle. The groats are coated in beaten egg and toasted dry in the pan until each grain is separate and fragrant, then steamed tender; meanwhile onions are cooked long and slow until deeply browned and sweet, the soul of the dish; and the two are tossed together with bow-tie pasta, the varnishkes whose name recalls the little filled Ukrainian dumpling, the varenyky, that the pasta came to replace. Rich with schmaltz or butter and dark with onion, it is humble, savoury, and profoundly satisfying, a dish in which the grain of the Slavic poor lives on far from home.
Schmaltz gives the most authentic, savoury depth and keeps the dish parve-free for a meat meal; butter makes a fine vegetarian version. Some cooks add sautéed mushrooms. Leftovers reheat well with a splash of stock. Use whole or coarse-cut toasted groats rather than fine, which turn mushy.
Mapping Culinary History
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