Recipe of the week: Hungarian cottage cheese pasta (túrós csusza)

Hungary’s gastronomy is full of delicious recipes. The premise and the ingredients of the cottage cheese pasta may seem ordinary, but together, they make the perfect dish.

History of the cottage cheese pasta

Pasta became a part of Hungarian gastronomy somewhere at the beginning of the modern era. József Topits founded the first steam pasta factory in 1859 in Budapest that allowed the large-scale production of pasta. Since then, it has conquered the markets and pasta is pretty much present in every household by now.

What makes this pasta unique is the special combination of hot and cold: a portion of warm pasta cooked with cottage cheese is topped with an extra portion of cold cottage cheese, it is then mixed with hot, juicy bacon strips, with the final addition of some cold sour cream.

The Hungarian name of the dish, ‘túrós csusza’ refers to the fact that this type of pasta is often very slippery due to the sour cream. 

Notably, Hungary was chosen as the 10th country with the best cuisine, according to this list on thrillist.com, not least because of the cottage cheese pasta.

Cottage cheese pasta is perfect for serving as the main course, a side dish, for example with fish meals, or even as the dessert, at the end of a meal.