Before I semi-retired and moved to the country, I traveled extensively with my job. Being away from home and family wasn’t fun, but I did enjoy new sites and trying local cuisines. When I visited Chicago, I always liked to dine at a Polish family restaurant that served pierogi. Those are savory-filled little egg-dumpling pouches. My favorites were filled with potatoes and cheese, but they also had meat and sauerkraut fillings. The dumplings are first boiled, then either baked or fried with sautéed onions and garlic and served with a sour cream sauce.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a pierogi and was delighted when I ran across a casserole recipe that called for them. Apparently, they can be found in the frozen food aisle of most grocery stores – unfortunately not ours. I was very disappointed, but the recipe sounded too good to skip. I didn’t have time to try making the dumplings myself, perhaps another day, so I decided to substitute with sweet potatoes.

Pierogi/Sweet Potato Casserole
16-oz. pkg. frozen potato pierogi (or 2-1/2 lbs. sweet potatoes peeled and cubed)
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
12 oz. chicken sausage, cooked and sliced
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. thyme
2 c. packed spinach, chopped
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1⁄2 c. sour cream
1 c. chicken broth
1⁄2 tsp. salt
1⁄4 tsp. black pepper
1 c. mozzarella cheese, grated

Cook sausage links until brown on all sides and then remove. In the same pan, sauté onions, mushrooms, garlic and thyme in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Then add spinach, cream cheese and chicken broth. Slice sausage and add back to pan. Cook until the spinach has wilted and the cream cheese melts. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream.

Place pierogi (or sweet potatoes) in a casserole dish and spread the sauce to cover. Then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes. The casserole is done when the pierogi/sweet potatoes are fork-tender.

The pierogi-inspired dinner came out well. I’m happy to discover another sweet potato recipe since I still have some from the garden, but I will continue to hunt for a local pierogi source. It may just have to be me.

Creating authentic-tasting traditional foods is an art. It will take the patience of multiple trials using advice from experts (like a Polish grandmother). I’ll probably have to find that online, but I love a challenge.