Túrós csusza

The story

Túrós csusza is Hungarian home cooking at its plainest: wide noodles tossed with túró, the crumbly fresh curd cheese, and sour cream, then topped with cracklings of fried smoked bacon or pork belly. Traditionally the noodles were made at home, dried and torn by hand into uneven pieces about the size of a fingernail before boiling; today most cooks use dried square csusza noodles or broken lasagna sheets. The savory version with bacon is the everyday one, but there are sweet versions too, made with sugar, with jam and ground walnuts, or with poppy seeds. It takes about 20 minutes, and Hungarians often eat it as a second course after halászlé, the fisherman's soup. Mór Jókai, the novelist whose name is attached to Jókai bean soup, counted chicken paprikás with túrós csusza among the dishes he liked best, according to his niece's memoirs. The dish suits the cold months because it is made from things that keep: dried noodles, cured pork and cheese. Túró is not cottage cheese. In the United States look for farmer's cheese, and let it come to room temperature so it warms through during the two or three minutes of the final toss.