🥧 Varzari — a cornmeal pie filled with young stinging nettles — is a true fasting dish from Călinești, in Maramureș. The recipe is kept alive by Oanta Ileana, 73 years old, who learned it from her mother and still prepares it every spring, when the first nettles push through the soil.
🌾 The recipe, as told by Oanta Ileana
For the dough you need cornmeal flour, water, salt and a little yeast, kneaded into a soft, workable dough and left to rest. The filling is made of young stinging nettles, picked with gloves, washed, blanched and finely chopped, then seasoned with salt and a drizzle of oil or jufa — the traditional pumpkin seed oil of Maramureș. The nettles are wrapped in the cornmeal dough, the pie is sealed and baked until golden, with a rustic, slightly crunchy crust and a tender, green heart.
🛐 A dish of the fasting days
Varzari belongs to the post — the fasting periods when Maramureș kitchens gave up meat, milk and eggs. Cornmeal, water, salt and wild greens were the honest ingredients of those weeks, and yet the pie was never poor: the earthiness of the nettles, rich in iron and vitamins, paired with the nutty taste of cornmeal made it a complete, warming meal. It is still served today with ajvar, burduf cheese or buttermilk — depending on whether the day is fasting or not.
🪵 Călinești, a commune of wood and tradition
Călinești is a commune in the northern part of the Maramureș Depression, on the Cosău Valley, formed of three villages: Călinești, Cornești and Văleni. The settlement is famous for its wooden churches — Călinești Căeni and Călinești Susani among them — and for a tradition of wood carving that has shaped gates, houses and church towers for centuries. With around 3,000 inhabitants, the commune keeps an old way of life where the garden, the forest and the flock still feed the family.
🎃 Jufa, the liquid gold of Maramureș
No fasting dish is complete here without jufa — the dark green oil pressed from roasted pumpkin seeds, with a strong, nutty aroma. Used sparingly, it turns a simple pie or a bowl of cornmeal mush into a feast. It is one of the most treasured local products of Maramureș, and Oanta Ileana says a true varzari should always be brushed with jufa before it goes into the oven.
🔍 Ce urmează: more traditional recipes from Maramureș villages — follow maramurespesurse.ro to taste the region’s fasting cuisine, from varzari to nettle soups and stove-baked pies.
