Bucătăria Carpaților · The Carpathian Table

Romanian Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the mountain kitchens of the Carpathians, where sarmale simmer for hours under smoked pork, mămăligă turns gold in the ceaun, and every ciorbă is soured the old way with borș. Honest ingredients and slow fire, the way Romanian villages have always cooked.

Explore the Recipes
Untură◆ Unt◆ Smântână
An elegantly plated Romanian dish on a dark wooden table
◆ Sarmale cu Mămăligă
From the recipe collection
Untură

Lard from the Larder

The Carpathian kitchen was built on untură, lard rendered slowly after the winter pig, and on smoked slănină from the attic. Every stew and sarma in this collection begins there, never with a refined seed oil.

Smântână

Finished with Sour Cream

Thick smântână from hill dairies is how a Romanian pot ends. It softens a sour ciorbă, crowns a plate of sarmale, and turns warm papanași into a feast.

Niciodată

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only butter, lard, and olive oil, the honest fats that village cellars from Transylvania to the Danube have trusted for generations.

❖
Din Bucătăria Noastră · From Our Kitchen

Romanian Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the villages and river towns of Romania, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Transilvania Sarmale, cabbage rolls with smoked pork served on a warm plate

Sarmale

Sour cabbage rolls with smoked pork

3 hr·6 servings·Medium

Romania's beloved feast dish. Pickled cabbage leaves rolled around pork, rice, and smoked slănină, then simmered so slowly that the whole pot tastes of the smokehouse.

Ingredients

  • 1 large whole pickled cabbage (varză murată), about 1.5 kg
  • 600 g ground pork shoulder
  • 150 g smoked slănină or smoked bacon, finely diced
  • 80 g short grain rice, rinsed
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp lard (untură)
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp dried thyme, plus 2 bay leaves
  • 300 g smoked pork ribs, for the pot (optional)
  • Salt, black pepper, and thick sour cream to serve

Instructions

  1. Melt 2 tbsp of the lard in a pan and soften the onions for 8 minutes, then stir in the rice for 2 minutes and let the mixture cool.
  2. Mix the pork with the slănină, the onion and rice, the thyme, and a good pinch of salt and pepper.
  3. Rinse the cabbage leaves, trim the thick ribs, and cut them into palm sized pieces. Roll a walnut of filling snugly inside each leaf.
  4. Line a heavy pot with chopped cabbage, then nestle the rolls in tight circles, tucking the smoked ribs and bay leaves between the layers.
  5. Whisk the tomato paste into enough water to just cover, pour it over, and dot with the remaining lard.
  6. Simmer on the lowest flame, or in a 160°C oven, for about 2 hours 30 minutes, shaking the pot now and then but never stirring.
  7. Rest 20 minutes, then serve with mămăligă and plenty of sour cream.
Dunăre Saramură de crap, grilled river fish dressed with garlic brine and herbs

Saramură de Crap

Grilled Danube carp in garlic brine

40 min·4 servings·Easy

The fisherman's supper of the Danube Delta. Carp charred on a searing grill, then woken up with a scalding brine of garlic, hot pepper, and thyme poured straight over the fish.

Ingredients

  • 4 carp steaks or fillets, about 200 g each (or another firm river fish)
  • 2 tbsp melted butter, for brushing
  • 1 tbsp coarse salt, plus more for the brine
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 hot red pepper, sliced
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 ripe tomato, chopped
  • 300 ml water
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Mămăligă, to serve

Instructions

  1. Pat the fish very dry, season with the coarse salt, and brush both sides with the melted butter.
  2. Heat a grill pan or flat iron plate until nearly smoking and grill the fish 4 to 5 minutes per side, until charred at the edges and flaking.
  3. Meanwhile bring the water to a boil with the garlic, hot pepper, thyme, tomato, and a generous pinch of salt, and simmer 5 minutes.
  4. Lay the grilled fish in a deep dish and pour the scalding brine over it while everything is still hissing.
  5. Squeeze in the lemon and let the fish rest 5 minutes to drink in the brine.
  6. Serve hot, with mămăligă to catch every spoonful of the garlicky broth.
Cămară Zacuscă, a roasted eggplant and pepper spread with fresh vegetables

Zacuscă

Roasted eggplant and pepper spread

2 hr 30 min·4 jars·Medium

The autumn ritual of every Romanian pantry. Fire roasted eggplants and red kapia peppers cooked down slowly with onions and olive oil into a smoky spread for the winter shelf.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg eggplants
  • 1.5 kg red kapia peppers, or a mix with gogoșar peppers
  • 500 g onions, finely chopped
  • 200 ml olive oil
  • 4 tbsp tomato paste
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp sugar (optional)
  • Sterilized jars, for keeping

Instructions

  1. Roast the eggplants and peppers over a flame or under a fierce grill until blackened and collapsed, then steam them in a covered bowl.
  2. Peel, drain well in a colander, and chop everything finely by hand for the proper coarse texture.
  3. Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot and cook the onions slowly until sweet and pale gold, about 15 minutes.
  4. Add the peppers and cook 20 minutes, then stir in the eggplant, tomato paste, bay, salt, pepper, and sugar if using.
  5. Cook over low heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 60 to 90 minutes, until thick and glossy and the oil rises to the surface.
  6. Discard the bay leaves, taste for salt, and spoon the hot zacuscă into sterilized jars.
  7. Seal and rest the jars under a thick blanket until fully cool.
Moldova Ciorbă de perișoare, sour meatball soup in a rustic bowl with herbs

Ciorbă de Perișoare

Sour meatball soup with borș

1 hr 10 min·6 servings·Easy

The ciorbă of family Sundays. Pork and rice meatballs poached in a garden broth soured the old Moldavian way with borș, then finished with lovage and a spoon of sour cream.

Ingredients

  • 400 g ground pork
  • 60 g short grain rice, rinsed
  • 1 egg
  • 2 onions, one grated and one chopped
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 carrot and 1 parsnip, diced
  • 1 small celery root, diced
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, grated
  • 500 ml borș (fermented bran sour), or the juice of 2 lemons
  • Fresh lovage (leuștean) and sour cream, to finish

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a soup pot and sweat the chopped onion, carrot, parsnip, and celery root for 8 minutes.
  2. Pour in 2 litres of water and simmer 15 minutes to make a light garden broth.
  3. Mix the pork with the rice, egg, grated onion, salt, and pepper, and roll walnut sized perișoare with wet hands.
  4. Slide the meatballs into the barely simmering broth and poach them gently for 20 minutes.
  5. Add the grated tomatoes and cook 5 minutes more.
  6. Pour in the borș, bring just back to a simmer, and season to taste.
  7. Pull the pot off the heat, shower in the chopped lovage, and serve with sour cream stirred into every bowl.
Sărbători Cozonac, golden sweet bread loaves resting on a bakery board

Cozonac

Walnut swirl celebration bread

4 hr 30 min·2 loaves·Medium

The bread of Romanian holidays. A rich yeasted dough of butter, yolks, and milk, rolled around a dark walnut and cocoa filling and baked into a tall bronze crown.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg strong white flour
  • 14 g instant yeast
  • 200 g sugar, plus 100 g for the filling
  • 400 ml warm whole milk
  • 6 egg yolks, plus 2 whites for the filling
  • 150 g soft butter, plus more for the tins
  • 1 tsp salt and the zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp rum
  • 300 g walnuts, finely ground
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

  1. Whisk the yeast into the warm milk with a spoonful of the sugar and let it bloom 10 minutes.
  2. Beat the yolks with the sugar, salt, and lemon zest, add them to the flour with the milk, and knead 15 minutes to a silky dough.
  3. Work in the soft butter a little at a time, then cover and let the dough rise in a warm, draft free corner until doubled, 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours.
  4. For the filling, whip the egg whites with the remaining sugar and fold in the walnuts, cocoa, and rum.
  5. Divide the dough in four, roll each piece into a rectangle, spread with filling, and roll into ropes. Twist two ropes together in each buttered tin.
  6. Rise 45 minutes more, then brush with a little yolk loosened with milk.
  7. Bake at 180°C for 40 to 45 minutes until deep bronze, rest 10 minutes, then cool the loaves on their sides, the old way.
La Han Papanași, warm cheese doughnuts topped with cream and dark fruit preserve

Papanași

Fried cheese doughnuts with sour cream

45 min·4 servings·Medium

The dessert every Romanian roadside inn is judged by. Warm cheese doughnuts fried in clarified butter, crowned with thick sour cream and sour cherry preserve.

Ingredients

  • 500 g fresh cow's cheese (brânză de vaci), or well drained ricotta
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 250 g plain flour, plus more for shaping
  • A pinch of salt
  • 300 g clarified butter or lard, for frying
  • Thick sour cream and sour cherry preserve, to serve

Instructions

  1. Press the cheese through a sieve and beat it with the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla sugar.
  2. Stir in the flour, bicarbonate, and salt to make a soft, slightly sticky dough, and let it rest 15 minutes.
  3. With floured hands, shape four rings with a hole in the middle and four small balls from the leftover dough.
  4. Heat the clarified butter in a deep pan to about 170°C, when a scrap of dough sizzles at once.
  5. Fry the rings 2 to 3 minutes per side until deep gold, then the little balls, and drain everything on a rack.
  6. Stack each ring with a generous spoon of sour cream, set a ball on top, and finish with more cream and sour cherry preserve. Serve warm.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Resilv Bucătărie

Resilv Bucătărie is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Romania, from the fir slopes of Transylvania to the reed channels of the Danube Delta. It is a table where lunch opens with a sour ciorbă, where mămăligă is turned out steaming onto a wooden board, and where nothing is ever rushed. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in village kitchens, patiently, precisely, and with a generous hand on the smântână.

Our only house rule is an old one: butter from the dairy, untură rendered slowly the traditional way, olive oil for the pantry jars, and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Poftă bună, may it feed you well.