Zapiekanka is polish street food! It’s super easy to make, quick, and very popular in Poland. I remember when I was at school, we used to go out on each break to a local shop and buy those crispy baguettes for lunch, ahh….the good old days! Zapiekanka is definitely one of those things I miss about Poland 🙂
Word zapiekanka means basically “to roast” (zapiekać) and it’s a polish halved long baguette with grilled mushrooms, onions, and cheese, sometimes with ham or other vegetables (like sweetcorn), I like it simple with mushrooms and onion grilled on the butter, melted cheese and ketchup! If you don’t like ketchup, you have to try it on zapiekanka – it has that different taste, and makes the whole dish complete 🙂 I’m not sure how zapiekanka was invented, but according to my Mum it’s believed to be in Poland since early 70′ when communism started and people became poor. Every family had “food cards” with carefully counted rations of basic ingredients like bread or butter, milk or sweets (only the lucky ones) – it was a very hard time for a lot of people.
Ingredients:
- 1 long thin baguette, halved
- 7-8 mushrooms, halved and sliced
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- around 100 g cheddar cheese, grated
- butter for frying
- ketchup, to garnish
- salt & pepper, to taste
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 180 C. In a large pan melt, the butter and add onions and mushrooms, season with salt & pepper, and fry until browned over medium heat. Spread equal amount of fried mushrooms & onions on each half of the baguette, and sprinkle grated cheddar on the top of each baguette. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Garnish with ketchup and enjoy!