Moldavian cuisine Tuscany. Moldovan cuisine - recipes of national dishes with photos

When I first thought about going to Moldova and told my family about it, they immediately started talking with admiration about Moldovan cuisine. For some reason, I thought that it was similar to Ukrainian or Russian, but it turned out that Moldovan cuisine is distinguished by its uniqueness. As it turned out, the national cuisine of Moldova was formed under the influence of Turkish, Greek and Western European cuisines. Of course, the influence of Ukrainian and Russian cuisines also did not pass by.

I always learn more about a country through its cuisine, as in the famous saying "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Moldovan cuisine is no exception. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in the national cuisine of Moldova, my top 3 dishes are hominy, pancakes with cherries and placinta with cheese. Nevertheless, we tried most of the Moldovan dishes and I can confidently say that I liked everything! You know, Moldova has become for me one of those countries where I would return for a gastronomic tour.

In this article, I will talk about the dishes that we tried during 3 days in Moldova, as well as share delicious cafes and restaurants. We have breakfast included in the hotel, so we only thought about food twice a day) By the way, when traveling, I prefer hotels with breakfast, I don’t need to think where to go in the morning and where exactly what I like for breakfast will be. Moreover, I'm not a fan of overeating for breakfast.

Let me start with the plinth. In general, all the names of Moldovan dishes sound very unusual and sometimes funny. Placinda- delicious cakes of various shapes with cheese, cottage cheese, cabbage, potatoes, meat or fruits (cherries or apples). In our hotel for breakfast, pies were with almost all flavors, but for me the most delicious was with feta cheese.

An analogue of placinta, but only from puff pastry - twirls. They are similar in shape to tubules, and the fillings are almost the same as those of Moldovan flatbread. The truth of the unusual can be found with sauerkraut or fried onions.

In Vietnam, I love Pho soup with beef, in Thailand, Tom Kha with coconut milk and seafood, and in Moldova, Zama. Light chicken soup with homemade noodles and herbs. At home, I sometimes cook something similar with the addition of frozen vegetables, now removing them from the soup, we get the Moldavian zama soup. Second most popular soup Chorba. I didn't have time to try it, but its composition is more unusual. It is prepared on the basis of offal broth with the addition of kvass or brine, which gives the dish a sour taste. Peppers, beans, cabbage or rice are added from vegetables (instead of potatoes), and offal can be replaced with beef.

It is interesting that the name "Chorba" comes from the Turkish "Shurpa", as soups were called in the Ottoman Empire.

The Hutsuls Banush or banosh, while the Moldovans - Hominy. This is finely ground cornmeal. I like most of all in what form it was served in cafes, like medallions.

Previously, hominy replaced bread for Moldovans, but this was due more to necessity than tradition, and now this dish is popular even in elite restaurants. The main course is served with cracklings, cheese, egg, sour cream and sauce Husbands(garlic sauce based on broth with the addition of vegetable oil and dill).

If we replace greaves with pork in hominy, we get a dish Tokana. Pork is fried in chunks with onions and wine and sauce are sometimes added. Crushed garlic is added to almost every dish, which gives a rich flavor. Garlic occupies a special place in Moldovan cuisine, not only the taste preferences of Moldovans are associated with it, but also beliefs (for example, vampires).

The funny names of the national dishes of Moldova include Mititei- grilled beef sausages with lamb and spices.

What do you like more dolma or cabbage rolls? I'm doing dolma, and the Moldavians have their own name for these dishes - Sarmale. Instead of regular cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used. According to tradition, it is stewed in a cauldron. Of the baked dishes, I was subdued by a pancake with meat. When I saw the photo on the menu, I did not expect that in reality the dish would be large and satisfying.

Separately, I would like to highlight the Moldovan pickles. I haven’t eaten them for a long time, or they really were so different from ours. For 3 days in Moldova, we completely ate all the pickles that were brought to the dishes, and on the last evening we went to the Moldovanesc restaurant of Moldovan cuisine and ordered a plate of pickles separately.

Cake is the king of desserts for me. Hat Gugutse. It combines my favorite pancakes and cherries. The cake is soaked in a sweetish cream and sprinkled with chocolate on top. It's just something with something! Usually I don’t eat sweets for breakfast, but in Moldova I made an exception. Just looking at the photo makes me salivate.

Let me remind you that for sweets, there are still pies and twirls with fruit.

Cafes and restaurants in Chisinau

It’s good that I didn’t dedicate this article to a cafe in Chisinau. To be honest, we were regular visitors to the network Cafe La Placinte. It was just minutes from our Bristol Central Park Hotel. The cuisine here is amazing, and the prices are very affordable, even cheaper than in Kyiv.

Several menu pages with prices at La Placinte.

We also went to the Indian cafe Himalayan Kitchen and Bar for dinner, it has a good rating on TripAdvisor, but I was not very enthusiastic about the cuisine.

The second place we visited to get to know Moldovan cuisine better is the new one. Moldovanesc restaurant. It has just been opened in the Sun City shopping center in the city center. It is assumed that every evening there will be Moldovan dances and performances. When we arrived, there were very few people, or rather, we were the only ones that evening, so we didn’t see any dancing.

Each of us, coming to some country, wants to try the local, national cuisine and learn about its specialties. In Ukraine it is borsch with bacon and dumplings, in Holland it is fresh salted herring, in France it is various soups or frog legs with sauce….

And what is delicious in Moldova, what can surprise us Moldovan food?

I have been accompanying for several yearstours to Moldova from Kyiv . Therefore, I decided to make the top 10, as for my taste, the most delicious dishes of this country.

Perhaps it will be useful to a curious traveler who is interested in tours from Kyiv to Moldova...

So let's taste!

1. Placindas

Moldavian placindas are delicious flatbreads that Moldovans prepare from exhaust, yeast or puff pastry. The cake itself is round, flat, with a filling inside. As a filling, it happens - cheese, cheese, cottage cheese with herbs, cabbage, potatoes, meat, or fruits - cherries, apples are used for a sweet filling. As a rule, pies are served hot, and this is just the same delicious treat!

2.

Moldavian vertuta are also fried cakes, like pies, but they are usually made from puff pastry and have a different shape. Vertuta - similar to a tube of dough stuffed with potatoes, cottage cheese, fried onions, apples or even raisins with poppy seeds. Vertuta, like placinta, will always be appropriate - as a snack with another dish, as a dessert or as a snack on the road.

When we go on a tour to Moldova and Transnistria, the whole group is happy to stock up on them for a snack on the road! On a full stomach tends to get even more interesting...

3. Hominy

Mamaliga is one of the most famous Moldavian dishes. This is such an analogue of the Transcarpathian banosh.

It is prepared from finely ground corn grits, and unlike banosh, hominy is boiled on water. It turns out it is so thick that it can be easily cut into pieces. It is usually served with sour cream, tokanoy (more on that below), feta cheese or Muzhdey sauce (garlic sauce in broth with spices).

Moldavian sour vegetable soup with bran kvass. Chorba is prepared with an abundance of different spices and vegetables. Depending on the recipe options, beans, sweet peppers, cabbage or rice (instead of potatoes) can be added to chorba. Chorba recipe with offal is popular, in another case, beef is added.

Chorba must be served with sour cream and hot pepper.

Interestingly, the origin of the name “Chorba” comes from the Turkish word “shurpa”, which is how soups were called in the Ottoman Empire. Apparently, the influence of the long stay of Moldova in the status of a vassal of the Ottoman Empire had an effect.

Zama. Zama is one of the most popular Moldavian soups. It is cooked from homemade chicken with homemade noodles, carrots, parsley, bran kvass, sometimes thyme and even tomatoes are added. Served, as a rule, with herbs and sour cream.

These are small juicy, meat sausages, without casings, traditionally fried on a “gritar”, a kind of grill analogue. Prepared, as a rule, from beef meat with the addition of lamb and the addition of spices. Served hot, with herbs and Husbands sauce.

7. Tokana

Another meat Moldovan dish popular in Moldova. As a rule, it is pork roast, which is fried with spices, sometimes with the addition of wine and sauce, with onions. At the end of cooking, crushed garlic is added, this gives the dish an appetizing aroma. Served with hominy, cheese and greens.

There is also - "Vegetable Tokana". It is actually fried - vegetables stewed in sour cream sauce. What vegetables? Yes, everything that grows in the Moldovan garden!

Sarmale is a dish similar to cabbage rolls and dolma. Prepared from different meats, sometimes from several types. Rice and various spices and herbs are added to minced meat. Instead of ordinary cabbage, pickled cabbage or grape leaves are often used for wrapping. According to tradition, it is stewed in a cauldron.A dish popular at Moldovan weddings. And again - let's remember the Ottoman Empire, since the name comes from the Turkish word "Sarmak". And this is in translation - to wrap.

9. Givech

Moldavian Givech is most often a vegetarian dish, in other countries, its analogues are mainly with meat, although how many housewives - so many recipes ...

All the vegetables that Moldovans love are bell peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes. It's all stewed with spices and fragrant herbs. So vegetarians in Moldova will not go hungry!

10. Gugutse hat

In Moldova, in addition to delicious vegetable and meat dishes, there are also delicious desserts in Moldova. In addition to placindas and twirls, with sweet fillings, more often with fruits, one can also distinguish this delicious cake - Hat Gugutse.

Its name comes from the name of a children's story about the adventures of a little restless boy who had a huge funny hat ...

It consists of tubes baked using a certain technology with cherries inside. The composition may also include nuts, and, of course, the cake is soaked with delicious cream, so those with a sweet tooth should definitely try it!

I hope this article was interesting and useful to you.

And if you want to try all this yummy in Moldova -

see our tours to Moldova andjoin the Drive Club journey to this wonderful little country!

Greetings, dear guests of the site! due to its traditional dishes, it is considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. And this is not an exaggeration at all - the climate of Moldova is ideal for growing fruits, vegetables and cereals. The variety of plant foods practically leaves no place for meat on the table of Moldovans, Gagauzians and Bulgarians living on the territory of modern Moldova.

About the richness of Moldovan cuisine, what dishes are the hallmark of this country, what chorba, zama and vertuta are, and much more interesting. By the way, I have not written anything on the site for a very long time - so maybe you can guess why this particular article was published?

There is an opinion that the cuisine of Moldova does not exist at all. This, of course, is not true. Maybe it is not so bright as to shine in restaurants, but nevertheless it is there, and it has its own characteristics that are simply impossible not to notice (I will talk about them later).

Of course, it was not without borrowing from Turkish, Greek, Russian, Balkan and Romanian cuisines. It's quite normal for neighboring cultures to influence each other, it always happens. However, it is worth noting that not a single recipe was copied completely without changes. In each dish, Moldovan chefs and culinary specialists put their own zest, this is creativity, in which all parts of the world are connected on one dining table.

What dish is the hallmark of Moldova?

Let's start with the most important dish of this country - hominy! It is prepared from corn, more precisely from cornmeal. By the way, corn itself appeared in the Moldavian Principality relatively recently - about 300 years ago, and the dish from it has already acquired a national character. Mamaliga is a very ancient dish, and it was originally prepared from millet. It is believed that the Italian polenta is the ancestor of the hominy.

This simple and at the same time very healthy dish has always been attributed to the food of the poor, and once in poor Moldovan families, hominy was a substitute for bread. It can be served as an independent dish, but usually something is added for taste: it can be sour cream, grated cheese, butter, milk, garlic, cheese, cracklings or mushrooms. The most interesting thing is that it is not customary to cut hominy with a knife, it is separated with a thread or broken by hand (I don’t know why with a thread: would it be easier to use a sharp knife? - but it just so happened, we will not betray ancient traditions). Next, a piece of hominy is crushed in the hands and dipped in sour cream or grated cheese.

This, of course, is a classic version of cooking hominy. I was once treated to a lazy hominy, i.e. pieces of hominy mixed with cheese, fried in butter, and sour cream as a sauce - I really liked it. Other delicious modifications are also prepared from it: Sarmale - cabbage rolls or cabbage rolls with hominy; Urs - cheese is baked in hominy balls.

I must say that white bread takes pride of place with them: all my attempts to find pure rye bread were unsuccessful (see the article where I talk about the most useful flour, guess which one?). Therefore, they know a considerable number of pie recipes there, the most famous of which are: vertuta and placinta (placinta) (we visited a restaurant that is just named after one of them: “La Placinte”, located in Chisinau).

Both placinda and vertuta - both are prepared from the exhaust dough with various fillings: with cottage cheese, feta cheese, nuts, fruit, potatoes, onions and eggs. Their main difference lies in the shape: a vertuta is a roll rolled up in a spiral, and a placinda is a flat cake. We tried cherry twirls - I was amazed at how much stuffing they had! It is immediately clear that there is a surplus in the country.

They also bake kalachi, Easter cakes and apple pie known to us. Very often they use puff and butter dough for baking sweets, cakes with honey from cornmeal, cookies with a layer of marmalade called semilune, gogosh shortbread cookies. By the way, our well-known pies with cabbage got a name there - verzere.

What sweets are typical for this cuisine?

The peculiarity of sweets is the use of mainly nuts, fruits and berries, which is very similar to typical oriental sweets. For example, quince and apple marshmallows, fruit and berry juice jelly, nut nougat, fruit marshmallows, soufflé, marshmallow, marmalade. Another characteristic feature of Moldovan sweets is the use of thick grape juice, a by-product in the production of wine - must. It cooks fruits and vegetables.

The result of the evolution of Moldovan cuisine is the Guguta Hat cake. This cake has the shape of a pyramid, assembled from rolls with cherry filling, decorated with cream and meringue.

As I said, the climate of this sunny country allows you to grow a variety of vegetables: eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beets and others. They are fried, steamed, stewed, baked whole, chopped - they make adjika, stuffed. You can see vegetables and legumes on the tables of Moldovans all year round in the form of salads, pickles, side dishes, first and second courses. In the summer, people are busy preparing pickles for the winter, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and so on. Look how much you can find in their basement - as I was told, this is not enough.

The most popular vegetables here are bell peppers, sweet peppers with a spicy taste, which has its own name - gogoshar, and, of course, tomatoes, onions, pumpkins, zucchini and eggplants. By the way, many of you probably like boiled corn. She has her own name there - fluff. As a rule, popushoy is served with salt, sometimes butter or spicy sauce is added to it. Legumes are also very popular here - various purees are prepared from them: with onion, garlic and vegetable oil. The most common: beans - white and green beans, chickpeas, lentils.

What is the secret of the taste of Moldovan vegetable dishes?

Brynza occupies a special place on the table of these peoples - pickled cheese made from sheep's milk and sour cream. These dairy products are added to meat, fish, vegetable and flour dishes to add salty and other flavors, i.e. they act as if in the role of spices and at the same time make the dish more satisfying and nutritious.

In the same way, various hot sauces are widely used. For example, Moldavian skordola is a sauce made from walnuts with garlic, and muzhdey is a sauce made from garlic, salt and meat or vegetable broth. Of the spices in Moldova, they use in abundance: red, black and allspice, thyme, tarragon, leek, garlic, celery, parsley, dill, tarragon, coriander, cloves, bay leaf, nutmeg, cinnamon.

How are first courses prepared?

The soups they prepare are a mixture of Russian, Caucasian and Mediterranean traditions. The most famous and beloved national soups are: zama - a soup made from potatoes, onions, raw eggs and poultry meat; chorba - soup boiled with fresh, not fried vegetables in meat broth and seasoned with fresh herbs and a sour drink, which I will talk about below, chorba is served with sour cream. There are also simple soups - for example, syrbushka - a soup with vegetables and cornmeal.

The national Moldovan drink, which is added to soups and other liquid dishes to give a sour taste, is sour bran kvass. This drink is very popular among the people.

What can you say about meat?

There are no bans on any types of meat here. In villages and villages, many people keep geese, ducks, and chickens, since it is easier to run such a farm than to keep cattle. However, sheep, goats, lambs and even cattle are also present. The meat of lambs, calves and young chickens, geese and ducks is especially valued.

Meat is the main ingredient in the traditional ancient dishes of this region, and in modern cuisine it is often used as an additional optional component of dishes. One of the ancient meat dishes is, for example, bone - pork marinated in wine, baked on fire; kiftelutse - fried beef meatballs; resol - rooster jelly; fly - smoked pork ham; cooked whole chickens and geese. Very often, meat is fried on an open fire: on a spit or on a grill.

A meat dish in which meat acts as a minor component is givech - this is something like a vegetable stew, it can be cooked with or without meat. Vegetables are stewed and baked in givech: eggplants, peppers, onions, garlic, lice with the addition of tomato juice or tomato paste with pieces of lamb. Moldavian moussaka is a vegetable dish, in which less than half of the volume may be minced lamb, or may be completely absent.

A characteristic feature of the preparation of fatty meat and fish is the use of an acid component: lemon juice, tomato juice, fruit and wine. The sour taste stimulates the liver and pancreas, which in turn facilitates digestion and absorption of heavy foods.

Various delicacies are prepared from meat offal in Moldova. For example, a shot is a mutton liver baked in an omentum. Mititei and kyrnetsei - fried pork and beef sausages. Mititei are small fried beef sausages without a shell, somewhat reminiscent of meatballs, but different in taste from them. And kyrnetsei are pork sausages in a casing.

Recently, a meat dish has become popular: cucumbers in Tiraspol. They are fried meat rolls with lard, garlic and spices. Sometimes cucumbers and cheese are added to them.

What is the most popular drink in Moldova?

You yourself can guess. The most favorite national drink is, of course, red wine! Scientists claim that Moldovan wine-making traditions are among the most ancient in the world. This low-alcohol drink was known here 5000 years ago. Many villages have managed to preserve the rarest grape varieties that are not found anywhere else on the planet. A large selection of wines allows you to choose your own drink for each dish. So, for example, white and red dry wines for meat and poultry, blended wines for hominy, Cahors wine for sweet pastries and pies, rosé wines for vegetables.

In confirmation of the wine glory of Moldova, I will cite the following fact: wine galleries in the Moldovan village of Malie Milesti in 2005 were included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest in the world! More than 1.5 million bottles of wine are stored in their cellars with a length of more than 200 km.

What other drinks do Moldovans drink?

The variety of fruits and berries has made such drinks as compotes, kissels, juices much more popular than hot teas and coffee. In summer, many different compotes are prepared: apricot, peach, strawberry, apple, pear and others. In my opinion, this is the best alternative to those juices that are sold in stores.

Have you already guessed why this article was born?

In the article, I have already let slip a couple of times about my festivities in Moldova. This summer, during my vacation, I went there to visit my relatives. It was my first visit to sunny Moldova. I was in Gagauzia - the region of Moldova, where the Gagauz live - the nationality is closest to the Turkic language group. By the way, Moldovan and Gagauz languages ​​are completely different. In general, these are two different peoples. As an example, a flat cake, which is called placinda by Moldovans, is called kyirma by Gagauz. There are other language differences of the same things, but this is a topic for a completely different article.

In conclusion, I want to show you a snapshot of the land in the field: the climate of this country is quite dry.

That's all for me. Thank you all for your attention!

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How should Moldovan vertuta be prepared? The recipe for this unusual dish with various fillings will be presented below.

general information

What is Moldavian vertuta? Almost every Moldovan knows the recipe for this dish.

According to experts, vertuta is called a roll from, which is very common in the preparation of this product, the same basis is used as for the placinta. However, eggs and a large amount of sunflower oil are additionally added to it.

Moldavian vertuta, the recipe of which will be discussed below, is made from dough that is rolled out and then stretched by hand to the thickness of plain paper. Then it is covered with a small layer of filling, after which it is tightly twisted into a tight roll, which is subsequently folded into a spiral.

Moldavian vertuta: homemade baking recipes

To prepare the dish in question, you must use the following components:

• wheat flour - about 3 cups;
• drinking water - about 1 glass;
• fresh chicken eggs - 2 pcs.;
• butter - no more than 50 g;
• vegetable oil - about 0.5 cups.

All of the above ingredients are necessary for kneading the dough. As for the filling, for its preparation you should use:

• country cottage cheese - about 500 g;
• table salt - 5 g;
• fresh small eggs - 2 pcs.;
• fresh green onions - a small bunch;
• fragrant dill - a small bunch;
• sour cream is not very thick - 10 g;
• egg yolks - 2 pcs. (for lubrication).

Knead the dough

How should Moldovan twirls be made? The recipe for such products requires careful kneading of the dough. To do this, wheat flour is sifted into a bowl, and then eggs are added to it and mixed with a wooden spoon. Also, separately, vegetable oil is poured into a glass of warm water and salt is added. The resulting mixture is added to the flour, after which the products are intensively mixed until an elastic dough is formed. Covering the base with a napkin, it is left to rest for 30 minutes.

Filling preparation

The prepared layer is rolled up into a tight roll and carefully twisted into a tourniquet. Having rolled the sausage with a snail, it is laid out in the middle of the dishes.

From the remaining layers of dough, exactly the same semi-finished products are made, which are also placed in a mold. At the very end, the previously prepared egg yolks are mixed with 2 large spoons of water, after which the Vertutas are generously greased with them.

Baking in the oven

How are Moldovan vertuta baked? The recipe requires the use of an oven preheated to 197 degrees. All products are sent to it and baked for 40 minutes (until a light ruddy state).

We bring to the table

The dish in question should be presented to the table immediately after heat treatment. Although some housewives prefer to use vertuts cold. Also, sweet hot tea should be served with Moldovan pastries.

Moldavian fruit vertuta: a step by step recipe

Few people know, but the products of Moldovan cuisine in question can not only be fried in a pan. How exactly this process should be carried out, we will describe below.

So, to prepare vertuta, you need to purchase:

• large egg - 1 pc.;
• wheat flour - 1.5 cups;
• vegetable oil - about 150 ml (20 ml for the dough, and the rest for frying);
• drinking water - 0.5 cups;
• vinegar 9% apple - a few drops;
• fresh sweet and sour apples - 4 pcs.;
• light sugar - 40 g;
• table salt - a pinch;
• fresh butter - 30 g.

Making dough

The considered recipe for the Moldavian vertuta pie requires compliance with all the described requirements. To prepare such a product, you should mix ordinary drinking water with natural vinegar, table salt and vegetable oil. Next, sift the flour into a separate bowl, break the chicken egg and pour in the previously prepared mixture.

By mixing the ingredients with your hands, you get an elastic dough. Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Filling preparation

To make the filling for vertuta, sweet and sour apples are peeled and rubbed on a large grater. So that they do not turn black, they are sprinkled with a small amount of lemon juice.

Formation process

As soon as the dough rests, it is divided into 5 parts and rolled out very thinly using a regular rolling pin. Next, the surface of each layer is smeared with soft butter. After that, they are covered with apple filling and sprinkled with sugar.

Having rolled up the rolls as described in the previous recipe, the edges of the product are tightly fastened. After that, each roll is rolled up with a snail and lightly walked along it with a rolling pin. At the same time, the dimensions of the pan are taken into account, on which the vertuts will subsequently be fried.

Frying Moldovan products on the stove

Frying vertuts in a pan is quite simple. To do this, the dishes are strongly heated on fire and vegetable oil is added. Having laid out the formed product, it is fried from two to one minute (over high heat).

After the vertuta becomes ruddy, cover the pan with a lid. In this case, the fire is reduced to a minimum. In this form, the products are cooked for about 5 minutes on each side.

Proper serving at the dinner table

You can use Moldovan vertuta both as an appetizer and as a dessert. In both cases, such products should be served hot. This should be done with tea or other drinks.

In this article, we have presented you with two of the easiest and most affordable ways to make Moldovan twirls quickly and easily. However, it should be noted that there are other options for preparing this dish. For example, some housewives make it using cheese, including cheese, fried onions and even meat (minced meat). By the way, with such a filling, vertuts turn out to be no less tasty and satisfying than with cottage cheese and apples.

Moldova is the land of grapes, fruits and various vegetable crops, as well as poultry and sheep breeding. Therefore, she uses all her wealth, offering guests fragrant, unique and satisfying dishes for every taste. Today, the Moldovan national cuisine is increasingly attracting the attention of many culinary specialists, as it is rich in interesting dishes. Recipes for vegetable dishes and snacks are quite diverse. So, traditional food is considered to be mititei (elongated cutlets), hominy, which is served with meat and cracklings. Of the soups, zama and chorba gained great popularity, and flour products became famous due to vertuta. And what are the Moldavian placintas worth! Of course, any treat becomes even tastier when it is served with a glass of the famous Moldovan wine.

A bit of history

Today we will consider some of the dishes popular all over the world that came out of Moldova. Before we do this, let's take a short digression into history.

So, Moldovan cuisine was formed gradually. It is quite natural that it was influenced by neighboring countries with different cultures, because Moldova is located on one of the most ancient and busiest trade routes.

During the period from the tenth to the twelfth century, a large number of Greek dishes entered this cuisine. In addition, the Moldavians mastered the technologies for making butter, puff and puff pastry, which at that time were practiced by South European and Mediterranean culinary specialists. Also there was an experience of using olive oil, dry wine and spices for cooking vegetable and meat dishes, sauces.

From Turkey, Moldova took a penchant for using lamb meat in cooking, from the Slavic peoples - a love for pickles and pickles.

Thus, Moldovan cuisine has formed into an integral structure with pronounced features, organically combining different, sometimes contradictory influences, managed to find the most successful combinations of products to create a bright colorful picture of natural ingredients, which is so loved all over the world.

Let's take a closer look at what Moldovan cuisine is. The recipes with photos below will help us with this.

Chorba with pork

Ingredients: five hundred grams of pork and veal ribs, one leek stalk, one carrot, one small head of cabbage, large parsley root, one spoonful of tomato paste, one onion, two sweet peppers, one glass of green beans, two tablespoons of lard or lard , five potatoes, as well as two stalks of green onions, two glasses of Moldovan kvass, two tablespoons of parsley, dill to taste, salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Cooking

Moldovan dishes such as this are very satisfying and tasty, because they contain nutritious ingredients that contain a large amount of vitamins and minerals.

So, the breast is washed, dried and cut into two pieces with a rib for one serving. Then they are fried in lard until golden brown, adding pre-chopped leeks at the end. All this is put in a saucepan, poured with hot water and brought to a boil. Then they remove the foam, salt, add greens, pepper and continue to cook until the meat is ready. Then the brisket is taken out, and the broth is filtered.

Onions, carrots, parsley root, one sweet pepper are chopped into strips, sautéed in lard or lard, tomato paste is added at the end and fried for about a minute. Two whole sweet peppers are put in the broth, brought to a boil, bean pods, diced potatoes, prepared vegetables are added and boiled until tender.

Meanwhile, chopped cabbage is fried in vegetable oil until golden brown. She is sent to the soup two minutes before it is ready. Moldavian kvass is heated separately, filtered, added to the broth along with salt, bay leaf, parsley and dill, and boiled for two minutes.

Such Moldavian dishes as chorba are served in portioned plates, where two pieces of meat are first placed, sprinkled with herbs and fresh green onions on top. The food is obtained with some sourness.

Moldavian pies

Ingredients: five hundred grams of milk, forty grams of fresh yeast (one pack of dry), one tablespoon of salt, one tablespoon of sugar, five eggs, fifty grams of margarine (two tablespoons of vegetable oil), one kilogram of flour, half a cabbage, four onions, and ground pepper, vegetable oil, five potatoes.

Cooking

Moldovan cuisine offers very interesting dishes. Placindas are a direct confirmation of this. Local chefs recommend making this pastry as follows. First prepare the dough. To do this, crumble yeast in a container, sprinkle it with sugar, add two tablespoons of warm water and leave until it is completely dissolved. In the meantime, eggs are beaten with salt, warm milk is added, and then prepared yeast, everything is mixed well and the flour begins to pour. In the process of kneading the dough, soft margarine and a few tablespoons of vegetable oil are added. In this case, the dough should turn out soft, it is covered with a towel and left to approach.

Filling preparation

How to make further Moldovan pies? We need to prepare the filling. To do this, the cabbage is chopped, the onion is cut into cubes, everything is mixed, salted and put in a heated frying pan to stew in vegetable oil. Boil the eggs, add to the prepared cabbage, pre-cut into strips, mix and leave for ten minutes. Potatoes are peeled, grated along with onions, salt and spices are added, cracklings can be added.

Formation of "envelopes"

The dough is divided into pieces of small sizes, each is rolled out with a rolling pin to make a circle. In the center of each spread the filling (cabbage or potatoes), straighten it all over the cake. Then one edge is carefully pulled out and placed on the filling to the center. Then take the edge on the other side and do the same. Similar manipulations are done with the rest of the edges. The result should be an "envelope".

Heat the oil in a frying pan, put the placinta upside down and fry, then turn over and continue to fry until golden brown.

Hominy

Ingredients: 2 cups cornmeal, 3 cups water, salt to taste.

The finished dish is served with cheese, cracklings, sour cream or melted butter. It all depends on personal and taste preferences. When serving, hominy is laid out on a dish with a spoon, which is moistened with cold water, poured with butter or sour cream, sprinkled with goat cheese or cracklings.

How is hominy prepared? Moldovan cuisine knows two cooking recipes. Let's consider each separately.

First way

Cornmeal is dried in the oven for several minutes so that it becomes dry and free-flowing, but not fried. Hominy is cooked in a cauldron. Salt and part of the flour are put into boiling water and mixed thoroughly so that lumps do not form, boil for five minutes. Then they add the rest of the flour with a slide, circle it around the walls of the cauldron with a wooden spoon so that it does not touch them. From above it is divided into four parts and boiled for twenty minutes under a closed lid. After the specified time, the lid is removed, the contents of the cauldron are quickly kneaded, leveled and steamed over low heat for three minutes. After that, the hominy is removed and left to infuse for fifteen minutes.

Moldovan cuisine invites everyone to try its national dish. But before that, it must be laid out on a wooden board and covered with a linen towel for five minutes. Then the lump must be cut into pieces with a harsh thread.

Hominy is often served with chorba instead of bread. They use it by dipping it in butter with cracklings or sour cream with cheese.

Second way

Add salt and four tablespoons of flour to a cauldron with boiling water, stir well, bring to a boil, add the rest of the flour, stir thoroughly and cook over low heat. Then the finished dish is collected with a spoon from the walls of the container to the middle, the surface is leveled, poured with oil and left to cook for another fifteen minutes. In this case, the dish turns out to be somewhat thinner.

Mititei

Moldovan cuisine, the recipes of which we are considering today, is rich in vegetable dishes, but meat dishes are not uncommon in it. Mititei are cooked from beef on a gratar (lattice).

Ingredients: eight hundred grams of beef, thirty grams of bacon, one hundred grams of fatty pork, five cloves of garlic, half a spoonful of soda, five tablespoons of water, salt, herbs, red and black pepper to taste.

Cooking

Moldovan cuisine is very original, and you can see for yourself by preparing this delicious treat. So, how to cook mititei? For this dish, you need to take two-thirds of the first grade beef and one-third with connective tissue, then it will turn out more magnificent. If the meat is lean, it is recommended to add bacon.

So, the beef is washed, freed from tendons and films, cut into small pieces, salted, mixed and put in a bowl for three hours to marinate. After that, it should be removed for one day in the refrigerator, after covering the container with a lid.

Roasting on the grill

Over time, the beef is passed through a meat grinder along with pork, a mixture of peppers, soda, water is added, kneaded and beaten on the table. After all that has been done, the minced meat is left for four hours in the refrigerator. Then sausages are formed from the resulting mass (using a meat grinder or manually). Mitites are laid out on a greased baking sheet, greased with fat, a second layer is placed on top, and everything is placed in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, the hot grate is smeared with lard, blanks are placed on top and fried on both sides until golden brown. Green peas, fresh tomatoes, onions or green onions, various pickles are well suited to the finished dish. The sauce is served separately.

It should be noted that if there is no gratar, then sausages can be fried in a pan or baked in the oven. On the grill, the dish turns out a little dry, in a pan - juicy.

Finally

Dishes of Moldovan cuisine (the recipes presented in the article are only a small fraction of the entire culinary diversity of this sunny country) are distinguished by their excellent taste. In the past, they were considered simple, and therefore not worthy of attention. And absolutely in vain. Simple does not mean dull and banal. Today, Moldovan cuisine is popular, its dishes are valued not so much because of the wide variety of recipes (this can hardly surprise anyone), but because of the successful combinations of different products and flavors.