Strawberry Pasta: The Summery Polish Dish You Need To Try ASAP

Let's say it's a hot summer, fresh in-season fruit is easy to come by, and you need a meal that's both refreshing and that will fill your stomach. What do you eat? Would you consider strawberry pasta from Poland as a sweet lunch, or a dessert?

The dish is called "makaron z truskawkami," which is Polish for "pasta with strawberries." It's regular pasta with a sauce made from strawberries and cream, then topped with sugar. If you're not already familiar with the dish, it may not seem intuitive. Among the more popular Italian pasta sauces, tomato sauce is slightly sweet, but it's subtle. Tomato sauce's sweetness is balanced out with stronger acidic and umami flavors, and Alfredo sauce is creamy and tangy. Strawberries, on the other hand, are extremely sweet in a way that normally makes them seem like they'd be a better fit for dessert or breakfast.

However, pasta does not have a strong flavor by itself. There's no reason why something sweet like strawberries and cream can't pair with them, and if you're willing to swap out tomatoes for a different red fruit, you'll find that they work quite well.

Makaron z truskawkami is not difficult to make. Any type of pasta shape works, and if you go looking for other folks' strawberry pasta dishes, you'll find flattened pappardelle, twirly macaroni, long spaghetti noodles, or simple penne. Home cooks often crush or blend the strawberries into a thick sauce and mix it with sugar and cream (or yogurt, sour cream, or creme fraiche), or sometimes they simply chop up the strawberries and toss them into the pasta. Honey works as a substitute for the sugar, but you need something to make an extra-sweet pasta sauce. That said, there's no universally agreed-upon recipe for strawberry pasta, so it's easy to substitute ingredients as needed.

The mixture of sweet fruits and cream with hearty, filling pasta makes it a versatile dish. In Poland, nostalgic strawberry pasta is both a dessert and a common school lunch during late spring and early summer. Many people in Poland look back on the dish fondly, remembering it as a common sight during their childhood summers. Stories of grandmas mixing fresh strawberries into everything are not uncommon in the region.

It's difficult to tell when strawberry pasta first came about — some suspect it dates back to when Poland was part of the Soviet Union, where food was scarce and you cooked with whatever was available. Strawberries are still a popular fruit in Poland, and during their short season, they're added into everything. Some prefer strawberries with rice instead of pasta, and another popular strawberry hack is to stuff fresh Polish strawberries into dumplings. This is called "pierogi z truskawkami" and it's similarly served with fresh cream.

Why is makaron z truskawkami considered a summer dish? Strawberries are a seasonal fruit and they're broadly at their freshest from May until early July (May 20th is National Pick Strawberries Day in the United States), although it varies from region to region. If you're interested in using strawberries you've picked yourself, early summer is the time for that, although nowadays it's not difficult to find fresh strawberries year round at the grocery store. Those typically won't taste quite as good, though, and strawberry pasta defenders will tell you it's not the same. At least it's easy to make fresh homemade pasta 365 days a year.