DO YOU LOVE someone enough to make them a plateful of pierogi*? If ever a food was more than the sum of its parts, these colourless, carb-rich Polish parcels are it. Their raw ingredients of flour, water, potatoes and onions place them firmly in the peasant food tradition (they date back to the 17th century at least). Yet their invisible ingredients – time and care – elevate them to the status of beloved national dish. Knowing that someone has risen at dawn to knead, roll, cut out, fill, seal and crimp them by hand, specially for you, makes them the ultimate comfort food.
The sensation of biting through tender, almost translucent boiled dough to a flavourful stuffing within is universally comforting, too, of course – see also Japanese gyoza, Italian…
