I know, I know… today’s recipe is NOT Italian. But this specific dish is very dear to my heart. You see, when I was a child I visited Hungary with my parents and I had the best Hortobágyi palacsinta ever in this small restaurant in Budapest. It was 1992… 20 years ago (oh my!) and Hungary was quite different then. We travelled by car and had a fantastic time… it is such a beautiful country. I have longed to be back ever since. And I have longed to eat Hortobágyi palacsinta too. I have been looking for a good recipe for a long time and I finally found one and today I want to share it with you. Palacsinta is basically a crêpe that can be both sweet (I have had some fantastic sweet ones in Prague) and savoury, like in this case. These crêpes are filled with a delicious meat sauce, covered with some more sauce mixed with sour cream and then baked. Trust me when I say they are mouth watering. I made them with veal, but they can be made with beef, chicken or pork too, or a mix of those. Serve them with an extra dollop of sour cream and a green salad on the side for a delicious meal! Enjoy… jó étvágyat!
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup onions, diced
- 250 gms – ½ lb. ground veal (or chicken)
- 150 gms tinned tomatoes, diced
- 1 pinch caraway seeds
- 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 tsp paprika
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup milk
- Sauce from the pörkölt
- ½ cup sour cream
- ⅛ cup flour
- Put the extra virgin olive oil and the chopped onions in a frying pan and sauté them until translucent.
- Add the meat and sauté it until brown. Make sure to break up any lumps with a wooden spoon.
- Add the tomatoes and water and stir well. Now stir in the paprika, caraway seeds and parsley. Cook for a few minutes, until the sauce thickens.
- Add ¼ cup of sour cream to the meat sauce and stir to combine.
- Sieve the meat sauce and let the pörkölt sauce collect in a bowl. Keep it aside.
- In the meantime, make the crêpes. Put the eggs, flour and milk in a bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk until you get a smooth batter.
- Take a non stick frying pan and put it on the fire. When hot add ¼ tsp of oil and a ladle of batter by swirling the pan so the batter coats the base of the pan. You want to make the coating thin (about 1.5 mm – 0.06 inch thick). When the surface of the crêpe dries up, it is time to flip it over. Do so by using a plastic spatula to loosen its sides first and then flip it over. Cook it for a minute more, then remove it from the pan and keep it aside. Repeat this till your batter is over.
- Divide the meat between the crêpes and fold them up like burritos. Spray an oven proof dish with cooking spray or oil and place the filled crêpes in it. Keep it aside.
- Combine the pörkölt sauce with ⅛ cup of flour and ½ a cup of sour cream and whisk until smooth. Pour the sauce over the crêpes and bake in a preheated oven at 175°C – 350°F for 15 minutes.
- Serve your hortobágyi palacsinta with a dollop of sour cream and a green salad on the side.
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Hi! I am Manu, the author of Manu's Menu. I was born and brought up in Italy and my blog can show you how to create authentic Italian food in your own home! 
You know I never heard of this dish. But it sure looks delicious!
Bravaaaaaaaa finalmente qualcuno che sa cosè un Pörkölt ….infatti nella zona mia viene impropriamente chiamato goulash quello che invece in ungheria corrisponde alla zuppa di patate e carne. Lo spezzatino viene accompagnato con i galouska piccoli gnochetti di farina cotti in acqua.
I palacsinta sono una reminescenza della mia infanzia nonna era ungherese
http://mementosolonico.blogspot.it/2012/07/palacsinta-ungheresi.html
questa è la ricetta della mia infanzia e da questo troverai anche le palacsinta dolci che a Trieste sono le palacinke reminescenza Austro-Ungarico.
La tua ricetta è perfetta. Bravaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
e scusami se mi sono permessa di mettere il mio link.
Un abbraccio e buon Halloween – Edvige
What is pörkölt so I know what to get sauce from? This looks tasty!
I was in Hungary a few years back and never saw this dish so I definitely missed out because I can see that it would be delicious.
We were together in Budapest, I daresay, and a lot of other places at a still rather difficult time in Hungary. Not much fun or security to have to report to the police every few days or have the Red Army stop you every few kms driving around the Balaton
! But the gypsies still played . . . 
! And I still remember the wonder of it all!!! And this is a wonderful dish I do not make often, bur shall do so in honour of this delightful post 
!
Wow! Perfect job, my favorite is the chicken version. Budapest and Hungary have changed a lot at the last 20 years, much more friendly, but the same nice as it was always.
As a Hungarian, like to say thank you to sharing this recipe. And want to let you know how much I love Italy, the Italian food, the landscape, and the ski slopes what Italy has. Every year we spend the winter holiday in Italy.
Love your website!
You should come and visit me here in Austria Manu. We call them palachinken here.:-) glad you shared this recipe, and I look forward to see your Italian variations of it.xoxo.
I had them in Budapest a few weeks ago. They were filled with shredded chicken and were fantastic. I live in Berlin and decided to give this recipe a try. I used 450gr of ground turkey as ground chicken is hard to find. They were good. I had to double the pancake amount to make 4 but I have a heavy hand. Next time I will cook a chicken breast and shred it after the fact. I think the taste would be more toward what I remember. The sauce was really good though.