This one-dish recipe accomplishes three valuable things: a) uses frozen convenience foods, b) uses fresh summer vegetables, and c) feeds you tastily and quickly. I use packaged turkey kielbasa (the regular kind seems unnecessarily greasy to me), but it would be good with Kramarczuk’s Ukranian sausage. You can omit and substitute ingredients according to what you have–I’m simply posting it how I made it last night as inspiration. I try to fry the ingredients more or less separately, but if you’re feeling lazy and unconcerned by things getting mushy you can put it all together at once.
1 package potato & onion pierogies
1 turkey kielbasa, in 1/4″ diagonal slices
3 small yellow summer squash, in 1/4″ slices
3 shallots, minced coarsely
1 tomato, diced
1 handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I used marjoram and parsley)
a few glugs Vermouth or white wine
S & P
oil for frying
Use your biggest frying pan and add a thin coating of oil. Fry the kielbasa in a single layer, flipping once, until they’re browned. Remove the kielbasa and re-grease the pan if necessary. Add the frozen pierogies and fry them on both sides until they’re browned and heated through, adding a dash of water or broth if they stick. Remove the pierogies and re-grease the pan if necessary. Add the shallots and some salt and cook 1-2 minutes, then add the zucchini slices and fry until they brown on each side and there isn’t much moisture in the pan. Add the pierogies and kielbasa, tomatoes and a few glugs Vermouth and toss gently. Add the fresh herbs, plenty of pepper, and a little salt. Toss gently again and allow the Vermouth and tomato juices to cook off until they form a thick gravy. Serve as-is or with a grain side dish or more seasonal veggies. Makes great planned-overs.