Biała kiełbasa pieczona

The story

Biała kiełbasa, white sausage, is a fresh pork sausage seasoned with marjoram, garlic, salt and pepper and stuffed into natural casings. Sold raw, it is a pale pinkish white. In Poland it is the sausage of Easter. Links of it go into the święconka basket blessed in church on Holy Saturday, March 27, 2027, where meat and sausage are read as signs of joy and abundance. On Easter Sunday, March 28, white sausage turns up across the meal: simmered in żurek or white borscht, sliced with horseradish, or baked in a dish with onions, as here.

Polish butchers sell it raw (surowa), cured or parboiled, and the baked version works best with raw links. Cooks brown the sausages briefly in a pan, lay them on a bed of slowly fried onions seasoned with marjoram and paprika, spread them with mustard and finish them in the oven, sometimes with a splash of beer. The onions soften in the sausage juices and turn sweet and brown.

The dish can be assembled hours ahead and baked while the soup is served. Mashed potatoes or rye bread, with ćwikła on the side, complete the plate.