Babka Ziemniaczana or Polish Potato Babka is a savoury cake-like pie made with potatoes, bacon and onions. The ingredients are all prepared and moulded into an oven dish then baked in the oven and if enjoying later on sometimes lightly fried before serving.
Though the dish is not uniquely Polish, it can be found in other nearby countries and much like our Minestra recipes it seems each region has their own adaptation. I tried this dish for the first time during a recent visit to Poland and pleasantly surprised at how simple it is and quite filling, a bit like preparing a torta de patata and taking it to the beach, I can see this dish becoming a nice alternative or even an inclusion at party meals, maybe even National Day?
The best kitchen item to have to make this recipe the easiest to make is a food processor with a grater adapter, as this recipe is going to have you grating a lot of potatoes.
Babka Ziemniaczana: Polish Potato Cake With Bacon
Ingredients
- 3 kg potatoes
- 1 medium onion (optional)
- 300 g smoked bacon, sausage or ham
- 3 eggs
- salt
- black pepper
- 1 tbsp butter
- 300 g cream 30% fat content
- 200 g semolina
Instructions
- Turn on your oven to preheat to 180C
- Leaving the potatoes raw, grate the potatoes down into a large bowl and leave it to the one side.
- Finely chop the onion and your choice of meat and fry in a pan with butter until the onions are soft.
- Once those are ready, mix all the ingredients together into a large bowl together with the cream, seasoning and semolina and combine your ingredients thoroughly.
- Transfer your mixture into an oven dish, spread out evenly and cover with foil. Place your dish in the oven and leave to bake at 180C for 1h 30 minutes – 1h40 minutes.
- Once ready allow it to sit for 15 minutes before serving. Alternatively you can allow it to cool down completely and serve by slicing into individual pieces and frying in a bit of oil.
Do you serve it with a side dish or sauce?