Hungarian quark cheese noodles, “túrós tészta” is a firm favourite with the entire population of Hungary. It’s not exactly a diet food but so easy to make and utterly delicious for an ocassional indulgence. Often served as a second course after hearty soups like goulash. Another well-known use is serving this pasta together with spicy fish paprikash stew.

Ingredients – makes 4 big portions

For the pasta:

• 500g dried pasta – tagliatelle, pappardelle style or similar with flat strip or square shapes.
• 4 litre of water, 1 tsp of salt to cook the pasta in
• 4 tsp of vegetable oil

For the topping:

• 500g quark cheese,(around 25% fat content)
• 140g smoked bacon, lardons – cubed
• 350ml sour cream (20% fat)

How to make

• On a slow heat gently fry the bacon/lardons cubes to melt the fat out and end up with crispy bacon bits.
• Bring the pan of water to boiling point add the salt and oil, cook the pasta to package instructions (10-12 minutes usually).
• Take half of the bacon fat, half of the sour cream, crumble in the quark cheese and warm these up together, doesn’t have to be piping hot just warm.
• Add the rest of the fat to the pasta, cover it well all over, then add the cottage cheese, sour cream and fat mixture and combine.
• Serve with more sour cream and the crunchy bacon bits scattered on top.

Just for fun here is a retro 70s-80s Hungarian advert of sourcream – “tejföl” :-) I remember this..