View source for Lokshen mit kaese

{{Short description|Traditional Ashkenazi Jewish egg noodle dish similar to macaroni and cheese}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Lokshen mit kaese
| image            =
| image_size       =
| caption          =
| alternate_name   = Lokshen with cheese, lokshen with cottage cheese, Jewish egg noodles with cottage cheese, Jewish mac and cheese, itriyot v’gvina, lokshyn mit kaese, lockshen noodles with cheese
| country          = [[jews|Jewish]] from Eastern Europe. Today mostly in [[Israeli cuisine|Israel]], the [[American Jewish cuisine|United States]], [[French Jews|France]], [[Canadian Jews|Canada]], [[British Jews|United Kingdom]], [[Australian Jews|Australia]], [[Argentine Jews|Argentina]], [[South African Jews|South Africa]], and other communities in the [[Jewish diaspora]].
| region           =
| creator          = [[Ashkenazi Jews]]
| course           = [[Main course|Main]]
| type             = [[Macaroni and cheese|Cheese noodles]]
| served           = Warm
| main_ingredient  = [[Lokshen]] noodles, [[cottage cheese]] or farmers cheese, salt, black pepper, less commonly [[butter]], [[cream cheese]], [[parmesan cheese]], [[sour cream]], [[cinnamon sugar]], [[caramelized onions]]
| variations       = [[Lokshen kugel]]
| calories         =
| other            =
}}
'''Lokshen mit kaese''', '''({{langx|yi|לאָקשן מיט קעז}} {{lang|yi-Latn|lokshn mit kez}})''', also known as '''({{langx|he|איטריות וגבינה}} {{lang|he-Latn|itriyot v’gvina}})''', '''Jewish mac and cheese''', '''lokshen with cheese''', or '''Jewish egg noodles with cottage cheese''', is an [[Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine|Ashkenazi Jewish]] dish popular in the [[Jewish diaspora]] particularly in the [[American Jews|United States]], consisting of [[lokshen]], or Jewish egg noodles that are served with a [[cheese sauce]] typically made with [[cottage cheese]] and black pepper, and sometimes farmers cheese may be used in place of the cottage cheese, and sour cream, butter, caramelized onions, garlic, tomatoes, mint, currants,<ref name="NYT 2">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Melissa |title=Cottage Cheese Pasta With Tomatoes, Scallions and Currants |url=https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022261-cottage-cheese-pasta-with-tomatoes-scallions-and-currants |access-date=9 September 2021 |agency=The New York Times |publisher=NYT}}</ref> parmesan, and other ingredients may be added. Sometimes a sweet variety is made with [[cinnamon sugar]].<ref name="NYT 1">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Melissa |title=Move Over, Ricotta. This Pasta Gets Its Creaminess From Cottage Cheese. |work=The New York Times |date=28 May 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/dining/cottage-cheese-and-noodles-lokshen-mit-kaese.html |access-date=9 September 2021 |agency=The New York Times }}</ref> It has been compared to a deconstructed [[noodle kugel]] and is considered by many to be a Jewish comfort food.<ref name="The Jewish Cookbook">{{cite book |last1=Koenig |first1=Leah |title=The Jewish Cookbook}}</ref><ref name="Tori Avey" /><ref name="MJL">{{cite web |title=Cottage Cheese is a Jewish Superfood |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/cottage-cheese-is-a-jewish-super-food/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=11 May 2020 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="MJL 2">{{cite web |title=The Easiest Jewish Comfort Food of My Childhood |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-easiest-jewish-comfort-food-of-my-childhood/ |website=My Jewish Learning |date=23 October 2017 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref>
==Etymology==
''Lokshen mit kaese'' comes from the almost identical [[Yiddish]] term for the dish, ''Lokshn mit kez'', meaning ''Lokshen (Jewish egg noodles) with cheese''.<ref name="Tori Avey" />
==History==
{{Quote frame|author= Leah Koenig<ref name="Tablet" /> |quote= "For generations before me, Jews across Central and Eastern Europe shared my devotion to starch and cream, serving egg noodles mixed with pot cheese as a quick, satisfying meal. Like many weeknight dishes, the recipe for lokshen mit kaese, as it is called in Yiddish, was budget-friendly, alluringly homey, and effortless. As Arthur Schwartz writes in his book Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited, it is a dish you cook “when you think there’s nothing in the house to eat.” Seasoned in the Litvak manner with a copious sprinkle of salt and pepper, as Schwartz enjoys it, or dusted with sugar in the Galitzianer tradition, noodles and pot cheese is Jewish comfort food par excellence."}}
According to the late Jewish culinary historian Rabbi [[Gil Marks]], lokshen mit kaese originated more than 800 years ago in the [[Ashkenazi Jews|Jewish]] [[Shtetl|communities of Eastern Europe]] sometime during the [[Middle Ages]] as a relative of the [[lokshen kugel]], and was a relatively cheap meal for the then impoverished Jewish population of the [[shtetl]]. The [[Lithuanian Jews]] preferred a savory version of the dish seasoned with salt and pepper while the [[Polish Jews]] preferred a sweet version of the dish sprinkled with sugar and sometimes cinnamon.<ref name="Tablet" /> When Jews fled from the escalating [[antisemitism]] and [[pogroms]] in Eastern Europe and sought refuge in the [[United States]] and other countries in the [[Jewish diaspora]], as well as in [[Israel]], they brought this dish with them. Lokshen mit kaese remained popular in the American Jewish community, though beginning in the late 20th century it began to decrease in popularity due to a growing mistrust of [[saturated fat]] due to its possible health effects, and a general desire to move away from old-fashioned tastes.<ref name="Tablet" />
Today lokshen mit kaese remains popular and is considered a comfort food<ref name="The Jewish Cookbook" /> comparable to [[macaroni and cheese]] for many American Jews, some of whom introduced new ingredients into the dish such as [[Italian pasta]], butter, parmesan cheese, mint, cherry tomatoes and currants,<ref name="NYT 2" /> among others.<ref name="Tori Avey" />
==Overview==
{{Quote frame|author= [[Jason Alexander]]<ref name="Tori Avey">{{cite web |title=Lokshen mit kaese |url=https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/jason-alexander-a-new-musical-and-lokshen-mit-kaese/ |website=Tori Avey |date=11 February 2013 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> |quote= "My mom actually managed to [cook when I was growing up], which was amazing because she was the primary breadwinner. She was a big muckety muck in the nursing world, and she eventually ran a school of nursing out of the St. Barnabas hospital in Livingston. So she had kind of kooky hours, but she still managed to be the mom who came home and cooked dinner. She was actually a very good cook. A lot of it was not traditional Jewish food, but on holidays certainly the Passover plate was the Passover Plate, and Hanukkah was [[latkes]], and [[flanken]] was very big in our house. She made a dish, I can’t remember what she called it, but it was [[Lokshen|bowtie egg noodles]] with pot cheese, much moister than the buckwheat. That was one of our favorites. She was a terrific cook. I say was, she’s still alive at 93."}}
Two main types of the dish exist, a savory and a sweet. Both are typically made with lokshen noodles along with cottage cheese, sour cream and sometimes butter. The savory version of lokshen mit kaese usually includes salt, pepper and caramelized onions. While the sweet version is topped with cinnamon and sugar similar to a noodle kugel.<ref name="MJL" /><ref name="Tori Avey" /> [[Melissa Clark]] makes a variation with mint, cherry tomatoes, scallions and dried currants.<ref name="NYT 2" />
==Preparation==
Lokshen mit kaese is typically prepared by boiling a variety of [[lokshen]] or Jewish egg noodles. Traditionally longer homemade lokshen egg noodles were and are still sometimes used,<ref name="Tablet">{{cite news |last1=Koenig |first1=Leah |title=Traditional Ashkenazi Mac and Cheese |url= https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/food/articles/ashkenazi-mac-and-cheese |newspaper=Tablet Magazine |date=18 January 2018 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> however store bought lokshen as well as varnishkes also known as [[bowtie pasta]] are a popular choice as well, sometime various shape of Italian pasta such as [[macaroni]] elbows are used as well.<ref name="TOG">{{cite web |title=Pressure Cooker Lokshen Mit Kaese (Jewish Noodles & Cheese$ |url=https://thisoldgal.com/pressure-cooker-lokshen-mit-kaese-noodles-and-cheese/ |website=This Old Gal |date=27 October 2017 |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> The Jewish egg noodles are boiled until [[al dente]] and then mixed with cottage or pot cheese, and sometime butter, cream cheese, parmesan cheese,<ref name="MJL 2" /> shallots, garlic, chive,<ref name="Tablet 2">{{cite web |last1=Koenig |first1=Leah |title=Recipe: Ashkenazi Mac and Cheese |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/recipes/ashkenazi-mac-and-cheese |website=Tablet |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref> or other ingredients may be added, along with a fair amount of cracked black pepper.<ref name="Tori Avey" /> Sometimes it is made with [[broad lokshen]] and served with [[ketchup]].<ref name="MJL" />
==In popular culture==
*Lokshen mit kaese is used as a Yiddish slang phrase equivalent to hunky dory, or "everything is easy".<ref>{{cite web |title=Lokshen mit kaese |url=https://sewnewyork.blogspot.com/2015/06/lokshen-mit-kaese.html?m=1 |website=Sarah in NYC |access-date=9 September 2021}}</ref>
*Lokshen mit kaese is mentioned in a song listing Jewish foods during the 2013 [[Broadway play]] ''When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish'' by [[Jason Alexander]], who has said the dish is a childhood favorite of his,  based on the 1963 comedy album by [[Bob Booker (writer)|Bob Booker]] and [[George Foster (comedian)|George Foster]].<ref name="Tori Avey" />
==See also==
*[[Lokshen kugel]]
*[[Jewish penicillin]]
*[[Kasha varnishkes]]
*[[Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine]]
*[[Kugel]]
*[[Kugel yerushalmi]]
*[[Shabbat meals]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Jewish cuisine}}
{{Israeli cuisine}}
[[Category:Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine]]
[[Category:Israeli cuisine]]
[[Category:Noodles]]
[[Category:Types of pasta]]
[[Category:Staple foods]]
[[Category:Cheese dishes]]
[[Category:Noodle dishes]]
[[Category:Kugels]]
[[Category:Jewish American cuisine]]
[[Category:Jewish noodle dishes]]