Túrós Csusza
Túrós csusza belongs to the family of Hungarian noodle dishes built around túró, a soft, fresh curd cheese similar to farmer's cheese, which shepherds and farmers on the Great Hungarian Plain kept on hand alongside smoked bacon and homemade noodles. The name literally describes the dish: csusza refers to the wide, slippery noodles, while túrós simply means "with curd cheese," a plain description for what became one of the country's most beloved comfort foods. Because it relies on ingredients a rural household produced itself — curd cheese from the dairy, bacon from the smokehouse, noodles rolled by hand — túrós csusza is often held up as one of the purest examples of Hungarian peasant cooking, largely unchanged since the nineteenth century. It remains a staple of home kitchens and countryside restaurants alike, usually eaten as a hearty main course rather than a side dish.
Wide flat noodles
Broad, flat egg noodles called csusza are boiled just until tender, giving the dish its hearty base.
Crispy rendered bacon
Diced smoked bacon is fried until crisp, and its rendered fat is used to coat the noodles.
Curd cheese folded in warm
Crumbled Hungarian curd cheese is folded through the hot noodles so it softens without fully melting.
Sour cream finish
A final spoonful of sour cream loosens the dish and adds tang just before the crispy bacon is scattered on top.
Ingredients 4 servings
- 400g wide egg noodles (csusza)
- 250g Hungarian curd cheese (túró), crumbled
- 200g smoked bacon, diced
- 200ml sour cream
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp butter
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Fresh dill or chives, chopped, for garnish
How to make it
- 1Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the wide noodles until just tender, then drain, reserving a splash of the cooking water.
- 2While the noodles cook, fry the diced bacon in a dry pan over medium heat until crisp and deeply golden, then lift it out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- 3Add the chopped onion to the rendered bacon fat and cook gently until soft and translucent.
- 4Return the drained noodles to the pot, add the butter and the onion with its fat, and toss everything together over low heat.
- 5Crumble the curd cheese over the hot noodles and fold it in gently so it warms through and coats the noodles without turning fully liquid.
- 6Stir in the sour cream and a splash of the reserved cooking water to loosen the mixture into a creamy, coating sauce.
- 7Season with salt and pepper, divide among plates, and scatter the crispy bacon and chopped dill or chives generously over the top.
Nutritional info
per serving (~350 g)
Estimated nutritional values.
Pairs perfectly with
