Culinary specialities from Romania

Favourite Romanian Recipes

If you are craving a taste of Romania, then why do not try some of our favourite regional specialities? We have compiled a list of some of Romania's delicious, authentic all-time classic recipes:

Sour Meatball Soup Recipe

Ciorbă is a distinctive type of Romanian soup that is soured with vinegar, sauerkraut juice or another sour agent. Sour meatball soup is among the most traditional of the sour soups. Traditional versions use lovage.

INGREDIENTS

Meatballs:

1 pound ground lean beef or pork (or a combination)
2 slices bread
1 small finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons uncooked rice
2 tablespoons water
Salt and pepper to taste

Soup:

1 small finely sliced onion
1 bunch lovage leaves or celery leaves or parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 peeled parsley root
1 peeled parsnip
4 peeled carrots
1 pound beef or veal with bones
4 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt as needed
2 to 3 tablespoons vinegar, or to taste
Sour cream for garnish (optional)
Hot pepper (optional)

How to prepare:

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add sliced onion, lovage, parsley root, parsnip and carrots. Add beef or veal with bone. Bring back to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface, reduce heat and simmer partially covered.
Meanwhile, make the meatballs by first soaking the bread in water or milk and then squeezing it dry. Mash the soaked bread in a large bowl. Add the ground meat, finely chopped onion, rice, water and salt and pepper. Wet hands slightly and make small meat balls. Set aside.
When the vegetables in the saucepan become tender, return it to boil and carefully drop in the meatballs. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes. When the soup is almost done and the meatballs come to the surface, add the tomato paste and stir well.
Add the tomato paste and stir. Add the lovage and season with salt and vinegar. If desired, serve with a dollop of sour cream and a hot pepper on the side.

Prep Time: 50 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Romanian Stuffed Cabbage,Known As Sarmale

This recipe for Romanian stuffed cabbage or sarmale is made with pork, sauerkraut and tomatoes. Sarmale are enjoyed year-round in Romania, but especially for holidays like Christmas and Easter.

INGREDIENTS

1 whole head cabbage, about 4 pounds
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 finely chopped medium onion
2 minced garlic cloves
2 1/2 tablespoons raw rice
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
1 slice crustless white bread
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons water
1 cup sauerkraut juice reserved from drained sauerkraut (see below)
1 tablespoon Vegeta
10 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
3 cups sauerkraut, drained (reserve 1 cup juice, see above), rinsed and squeezed dry
6 strips bacon
6 fresh dill sprigs
2 pounds sliced tomatoes (fresh or canned)

How to prepare:

Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. You will need about 18 leaves.
When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through. Chop any remaining cabbage and set aside.
In a large skillet, saute chopped onion, garlic and rice in 1 tablespoon olive oil, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent. Add hot water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes or until rice has absorbed all the water. Let cool.
Place pork in a large bowl. Quickly dip bread in water, squeeze to remove excess water and add to meat along with onion-garlic-rice mixture, combining thoroughly. Add dill, thyme, salt, pepper, hot pepper, if using, and 2 tablespoons water. Mix completely but lightly so as not to toughen the meat.
In a medium bowl, mix 3 cups water with sauerkraut juice, Vegeta, peppercorns and bay leaves, and set aside.
Place about 1/2 cup of meat mixture on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.
Using 2 tablespoons of the remaining olive oil, coat a large, lidded Dutch oven or casserole dish. Mix reserved chopped cabbage with sauerkraut and place some in the bottom of the prepared Dutch oven.
Place 3 strips bacon across sauerkraut and cover with a layer of stuffed cabbages. Add another layer of sauerkraut, bacon strips and stuffed cabbage. Then top with remaining sauerkraut. Spread dill sprigs on top and sprinkle with remaining olive oil. Pour sauerkraut juice-water mixture over all.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil, lower heat to medium-low, cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Transfer to oven and cook 1 1/2 hours. Then add sliced tomatoes, cover and cook another 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue cooking another 15 minutes.
When ready to serve, remove bay leaves, and accompany sarmale with boiled potatoes, pasta or mamaliga (polenta).

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 120 minutes

Romanian Mititei Sausages

The story tells about a popular mid-19th-century Romanian inn, famous for its sausages, where, to save time, the chef formed an unstuffed meat mixture into sausage-shaped cylinders and grilled them over charcoal. The customers delighted in "the wee ones without skin," and so these casingless sausages became known as mititei or "the wee ones."

Mititei also can be made with lamb or pork or a combination, and formed into patties or meatballs and grilled, broiled, pan fried or baked in the oven.

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds ground chuck
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons water
3 finely chopped garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

How to prepare:

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly, wetting your hands frequently to keep the meat moist. Cover bowl and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.
Using slightly dampened hands, divide mixture into 18 equal portions and form into oval sausages about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches thick.
Grill, broil or pan fry 7 minutes per side or bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Serve with tomato and green onion salad, sour cream sprinkled with paprika,baked potato or french fries, or rice.
"Mititei" make great appetizers and are wonderful cold the next day in a sandwich.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Romanian Salami Cookie Recipe

These unbaked cookies made to look like slices of salami are popular at Christmas time in Romania and elsewhere throughout Europe, especially Italy, Germany and Hungary whose cuisines have influenced Romanian food.

Essentially it is a combination of cocoa powder, butter, sugar, rum extract or other real liquor, crumbled cookies and, usually Turkish delight. Some recipes call for whole eggs or egg yolks but, because this cookie isn't baked, make sure to use pasteurized eggs. The mixture is formed into a log shape, refrigerated and then sliced and served. There are many variations of this recipe, and here is my favorite.

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons milk
200g / 7 ounces Turkish delight, chopped
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
400g / 14 ounces butter biscuits (like Petite Beurre), broken into very coarse crumbs
300g / 10.5 ounces walnuts toasted and chopped when cool
2 teaspoons rum extract or 1 shot of dark rum
150g / 5.29 ounces softened butter
6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
2 large pasteurized eggs, separated
200g / 7 ounces pitted sour cherries from liqueur, drained and coarsely chopped
1 (100g / 3.5-ounce) package very fine dried coconut

How to prepare:

In a large saucepan, heat milk with Turkish delight until candy starts to melt and reduce in size. Remove from the heat.
To the saucepan, add 1/2 of the cocoa, 1/2 of the biscuits, 1/2 of the walnuts, and half of the rum. Mix thoroughly and set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the softened butter with 5 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and 2 egg yolks. Add this to the ingredients in the saucepan and mix thoroughly.
Add in the rest of the rum, cocoa, biscuits, walnuts and the coarsely chopped sour cherries. Whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks and blend into the mixture.
Sprinkle remaining 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar and shredded coconut on a large piece of plastic wrap. Put the dough in the middle and roll it up in the plastic wrap, forming it into the shape of a salami. Wrap tightly and refrigerate 6 to 7 hours. Remove plastic wrap and cut into 1/2" slices when ready to serve.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Refrigerate before serving

Fried Dumplings with Cream and Jam

This is a very popular dessert in Romania. It is also a very easy to do recipe and a great comfort food providing just enough to fill your sweet tooth without going overboard. You ca n find it in every Romanian restaurant since it wide spread among the regions of Romania without much differences being one of the few foods without any regional aspect in this cuisine.

INGREDIENTS:

500g of Cottage Cheese
2 Eggs
Lemon Zest from 1 Lemon
100g of Raisins
1/2 Teaspoon of Sodium Bicarbonate
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt
2-3 Teaspoons of Vanilla Sugar ( Simply take a Vanilla Stick cut in in half and put it

in a jar of sugar for a few days )

300g of Flour ( 200g for the dumplings and 100 for the modeling itself)
Sunflower Oil ( Enough for deep frying )
Sour cherry Jam
How to prepare:Cream

How to prepare:

In a large mixing bowl put together the cottage cheese,the eggs,the salt,the lemon zest,the vanilla sugar,the sodium bicarbonate and the raisins .
Thoroughly mix the content of the bowl till everything is nicely spread out then add the flour ( 200g) and incorporate it into the mixture, if the mixture is too runny add a little more flower it should be fairly consistent.
Spread some flower over your cooking table and with a spoon dipped in water for balls from mixture and model them into a ring by pressing on the middle first then creating a gap and rounding it off ,make sure to use flour so the dough doesn't stick to your hands or surface.
For every ring made also make a small ball of dough.
Once you have done this prepare a pot with oil in order to deep fry the rings and balls till they are golden brown on each side.
Serve hot powdered with caster sugar ( you can make some caster sugar from the vanilla sugar in a food processor) topped with cream and sour cherry jam.
Enjoy this wonderful dessert.

Alivanca - Moldavian Cheese Pie

This cheese dish makes is usually served hot, cut into squares, with a dollop of sour cream on top. Absolutely delicious!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb cottage cheese (or 1/2 lb cottage cheese and 1/2 lb. cream cheese) or 1 lb cream cheese (or 1/2 lb cottage cheese and 1/2 lb. cream cheese)
4 eggs
5 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 ounces sour cream
2 ounces soft butter
1 teaspoon salt

How to prepare:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter a 7"x11"x2" oven safe dish.
In mixer or food processor add ingredients in order given.
Beat or process until mixture is smooth.
Pour cheese mixture into dish and bake about 35 minutes.
Check at 30 minutes.
If top is nicely browned and a knife plunged into center of dish comes out clean,

it's done.

Cut into squares while hot.
Can be served with sour cream on top.
I have even made a sweet cheesecake from this by adding sugar to taste, grated lemon rind, and vanilla.

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 35 mins