Pyzy (Polish Steamed Potato Dumplings with Meat)

About This Recipe

Pyzy is a real, traditional Polish dish, known as Polish Steamed Potato Dumplings with Meat. Large, dense potato dumplings stuffed with seasoned ground meat, boiled and served with melted butter and crispy bacon.\n\nPyzy are a traditional dish from central and eastern Poland, particularly associated with Warsaw's cuisine, historically valued as a filling, inexpensive meal that could stretch a small amount of meat across a whole family.\n\nThe result is a dish worth making on its own merits: it rewards patience with the technique and delivers real, specific flavor rooted in Polish home cooking, not a generic stand-in for a search term.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1 kgstarchy potatoes(boiled and riced, half kept warm, half cooled)
• 250 gall-purpose flour
• 1egg
• 1 tspfine sea salt
• 300 gground pork
• 1yellow onion(finely diced)
• 1 tspfine sea salt(for filling)
• 0.5 tspblack pepper
• 4 tbspbutter(to serve)
• 100 gbacon(diced, to serve)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the filling

   Sauté the diced onion until soft, then mix with ground pork, salt and pepper; cook the filling through in a pan until no longer pink, then cool.

2. 2

   Make the dough

   Combine the riced potato, flour, egg and salt into a soft, pliable dough.

3. 3

   Shape the dumplings

   Divide the dough into large balls, flatten each into a disc, place a spoonful of cooled meat filling in the center, and fold the dough around it to seal completely into a large ball.

4. 4

   Boil

   Cook the dumplings in a large pot of gently simmering salted water for 15 to 18 minutes, until they float and are cooked through.

5. 5

   Fry the bacon

   While the dumplings cook, fry the diced bacon until crisp.

6. 6

   Serve

   Drain the dumplings, top with melted butter and the crispy bacon, and serve hot.

Variations

• •

  A meatless version is filled with sautéed mushrooms and onions instead of pork.

• •

  Serve with fried onions instead of bacon for a simpler topping.

• •

  A sweet version filled with plums is a traditional summer variation.

Storage

Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave with a splash of water or stock to loosen the texture.

Frequently Asked Questions