Slovak Potato Dumplings with Bryndza (Sheep's Milk Cheese) and Bacon

Take the bryndza out of the refrigerator. In a pot with a capacity of at least 6 l, start heating 4 l water with 16 g salt. Prepare a grater with fine, sharp holes for grating potatoes to a pulp, a dumpling sieve with holes about 8–10 mm across and a scraper, and a slotted spoon. You will also need a large heatproof bowl with a capacity of about 3 l and a lid or plate to cover it. Cut the bacon into cubes about 5–7 mm across.

Put all the bacon in a cold skillet about 24 cm in diameter, without adding any fat. Heat over medium heat, then reduce to medium-low once it starts to sizzle. Cook for about 10–12 minutes, stirring regularly, until the fat has rendered and the bacon pieces are cooked through, golden brown and crisp. Lift the bacon out with a slotted spoon onto a dry plate, without paper towels, and leave it without a cover; keep all the fat in the skillet off the heat. Watch the bacon as it cooks and start grating the potatoes at the same time, as described in the next step.

Finely grate the peeled potatoes into a bowl to form a moist pulp with no long shreds. Do not squeeze them and do not pour off the juice: all the potato pulp and liquid stay in the batter. Add 300 g flour and 4 g salt and mix thoroughly with a spoon. The batter should be thick and sticky, slide slowly from the spoon and not flow like crepe batter when you tilt the bowl. Reserve the remaining 100 g flour for the cooking test; do not add it automatically. Do not leave the batter to rest for a long time; go straight to the test.

Bring the water to a boil, then maintain a gentle boil. Take a small amount of batter on a teaspoon, roughly enough for a dumpling 2 cm long, and slide it into the water. Stir gently; once it floats, cook for about 2–3 minutes more. Lift it out and cut it open: it should hold its shape and be soft but firm, with no raw, floury center or crunchy potato inside. If it falls apart, stir 20 g of the reserved flour into the batter and repeat the test, adding further 20 g amounts if needed, up to 100 g beyond the initial quantity. Use 300–400 g flour in total; save any unused flour for another dish.

Put all the bryndza in the large heatproof bowl. Add all the warm fat from the bacon skillet and mash with a fork into a thick mixture; it does not need to be perfectly smooth. Keep the bryndza off the heat and set the crispy bacon aside separately for serving. Place the prepared bowl beside the pot so you can transfer the hot dumplings straight into it.

Set the dumpling sieve securely over the pot and push about 1/4 of the batter through it to form small, irregular dumplings. Stir gently along the bottom so they do not stick, and keep the water at a gentle boil. Once the dumplings float, cook for about 2–3 minutes more, until soft with an even texture throughout and no raw flour or hard potato bits inside. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain briefly over the pot and immediately transfer to the bryndza. Do not rinse with water; mix gently and cover the bowl so the dumplings do not dry out and stay warm.

Cook the remaining 3 batches in the same way, using all the prepared batter. Bring the water back to a gentle boil before each batch. Add the drained hot dumplings to the bowl of bryndza, mix gently each time and cover between batches. Allow about 15–20 minutes to cook all 4 batches, checking for tenderness instead of relying on time alone. After the final batch, measure 100 ml hot cooking water from the pot and discard the rest.

Add 50 ml of the reserved hot water to the bowl of dumplings and mix carefully, lifting the dumplings from the bottom. Pour in the remaining 50 ml and combine again. The bryndza, starchy water and fat should form a thick sauce that coats the dumplings, without a large pool of liquid at the bottom. Mix everything off the heat; do not boil the bryndza and do not fry the finished dumplings.

Divide the hot dumplings and all the sauce into 4 servings. Put all the crispy bacon on top only just before serving. Serve immediately, while the dumplings are soft, the sauce is creamy and the bacon is still crisp.