On a trip to Poland, my husband was introduced to Zapiekanka, a type of Polish street food. As he recalls, it was “fast, cheap and delicious”. Traditionally Zapiekanka is a baguette filled with mushrooms and cheese plus ham or other type of meat and is a common sight on Polish street corners. Try our recipe for Zapiekanka (or Zapiekanki), the ShowMeTheCurry variation of this delicious and nutritious meal.
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 15-20 mins including bake time
Serves: 2 to 3
Ingredients:
Olive Oil – 1 Tbsp
Bell Pepper – 1/2, chopped
Mushrooms – 4 to 5, sliced
Onion – 1/2 small, chopped
Garlic Powder – 1/2 tsp
Crushed Red Chili Flakes – optional and to taste
Italian Seasoning – 1/2 tsp
Pasta Sauce – 1/2 cup or as needed to lightly coat the veggies.
Pickled Jalapenos – to taste (optional)
Black Olives – 1/4 cup
Salt – to taste
Shredded Cheese – 1 cup or to taste (divided)
Italian Bread or Baguette – Thin Variety
Method:
Preheat Oven 450F/232C.
1. Heat Olive Oil in a skillet.
2. Add Bell Pepper, Mushrooms and Onions.
3. Season with Garlic Powder, Crushed Red Chili Flakes, and Italian Seasoning. Mix well and cook until Onions are lightly caramelized, stirring frequently.
4. Add Pasta Sauce and mix well.
5. Add Jalapenos, Olives and Salt to taste. Mix well and turn off stove.
6. With a serrated knife, cut into the Bread at an angle near the top and make it into a boat shape. The part you remove can be saved for later use.
7. Mix 1/2 of the cheese into the veggie mixture and quickly mix so that the cheese does not melt.
8. Immediately fill the bread boat with the mixture and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
9. Bake in a preheated oven (450F/232C) until the cheese is lightly golden and bubbly (approx 5-8 minutes).
10. Serve hot.
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Hey Everyone
I just got back from Poland after spending 32 days touring around from Warsaw to Gdansk but the best Zapiekanka was found in Krakow, Poland in the historic Jewish Kazimierz district there were restaurants and bars all around this building that made amazing zapiekanka. Though I had a vegetarian mushroom & cheese zapiekanka, there were like 10 different types and styles of Zapiekanka z Salami and Zapiekanka z Kebabem. With different types of sauces ….. I make a special trip back there for this mmmmmm mmmm good
Loved this recipe. Made it last night. Love your site makes Indian food easy. Now I dint have to ask my mom to make my favorites and love how incorporate other typesof food, especially benificial for those who grew up in the USA but needs Indian spice. In their food
Hi Neetha,
Thank you so much for your sweet and kind comment 🙂
Hi Anuja and Hetal…..I just came across your site and wow!!!!!I am blessed by the variety of dishes you guys have shown here..tried some and came out wonderful. I always search for tiffin varieties and yeah…you have them ,also its all healthy variations. Do you have any cook books published????,mini
Hi Anu
Anuja and Hetal…..I just came across your site and wow!!!!!I am blessed by the variety of dishes you guys have shown here..tried some and came out wonderful. I always search for tiffin varieties and yeah…you have them ,also its all healthy variations. Do you have any cook books published????,mini
To fajne że w Ameryce robią polskie dania.
In English: It’s cool that they do in America Polish dishes.
Instead of making boat, just a different variation to try.. cut the bread like regular sub spread the raw veggie,add seasonings, spread the cheese, bake it & close it… can be call as “oven baked sub”
Liked your work!!
We made a boat because we are crazy about the filling…the boat allows more filling without it falling out.
hey ladies anuja & hetal, your recipe with the photo is on another website with the author of the recipe as rehana hisham, plz check it out for copyright infringing.
Thanks for looking our for us Payal…we really appreciate it. We have reported the violation.
http://www.lankaliving.com/default/index.php?option=com_garyscookbook&func=detail&id=6
this person has put your recipe & photo in this web page, plz check http://www.lankaliving.com/default/index.php?option=com_garyscookbook&func=detail&id=6
anuja you look tired. hetal looks fresh in this video. love this recipe from poland.
Hey ladies, this looks good. In the video you mentioned, you can make it with meat. Well i am vegetarian, so instead of meat, i used boca burgers and no mushrooms. I pulsated in the food processor, so it wasn’t a mush. And i followed the rest of the recipe. It turned out very good and it was very filling. And my friend tried it with crushed kidney beans to give bit texture and followed the rest of your recipe. That also turned out very nice.
hey , I tried this yesterday without the pasta sauce and italian herbs. I used tomato sauce and pepper powder instead:D and it was great but I forgot to add black olives which I had in the fridge:( never mind i am going to make to again and use the olives too this time.
Hey Gals,
I had prepared it last night for dinner. My hubby totally loved it. Taste was awesome…thanks a ton!!!
Hi hetal n anuja, any substitute for italian seasoning and pasta sauce?
very good
Great recipe!
It’s very nice to see polish food here 🙂
You have to come to Krakow to taste original zapiekanka on Kazimierz 🙂
Regards,
Marek
Hi Marek,
I’ll definitely have to make a stop by Kazimierz :).
Hi Hetal & Anuja,
I tried this recipe over the week end. It is something to die for !! The Zapiekanka was awesome !! Thank you for a great recipe. I used baguette and grilled chicken breast strips, mozzarella cheese and did not do the olives. It was wonderful. We all enjoyed it a great deal. Thanks for your awesome recipe and even more awesome presentation. Wish you good luck !!
Regards,
Jyothi
easy and nice recipe!!
lol american ketchup with this would be gross.
hi there
lovely recipe…………… thank u so mch
could u plz show us how to make vegetarian calazon?
thnks……..
Hi Patel,
We will put that on our list 🙂
Hetal, Anjua
Is there a “california Pizza Kitchen” restaurant in texas?
If there is, have u guys tried the “tostadas” pizza there?
If yes, there is a “chips strips” as a topping…do u guys know where would i find that?
I am not exactly sure if it’s called chips strips or something else.
But “tostadas” pizza is soooo yummy….i love it…
i wanna make it home but can’t find recipe online….
please show a video if u know the recipe of what i am talking about.
Hi there,
We know exactly what you talking about…I used to have that ALL the time before I discovered the Greek Pizza 😉
We will do a session on different pizza toppings sometime 🙂
You really must do a session on pizza toppings. i dont bake but i make pizzas in a pan – get the ready made pizza base, fry it lightly in the pan and add sauce and toppings. Bored with the usual cheese n mushroom, onion, capsicum kinda toppings. anything quirky (veg) would be welcome.
Hi Vidya,
We will do that…plus here is a trick that we do all the time: we use the frozen Naans as the base for the pizza, it’s inexpensive and healthy (if you use the wheat ones) and they are small so you can have a variety 😉
I usually have the kids make their own (specially for birthday parties). 🙂
here it is
http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/848488-Tostada-Pizza
i love tostadas pizza from cpk…….awesome…delicious…..
can someone pls tell me where i can find tortilla cips strips? pls…pls….
has anyone ever seen in jewel, dominicks, safeway, meijer???
Hi Ann,
You can either take raw tortillas and fry them or just use the tortilla chips ( just break them ).
Here in Texas we get them at Walmart at times, but not sure about your region.
they both wear similar style tops…..very cute….u both r pretty….hetal i wanna be skinny like u….
give me some diet tips…..simple…i can’t starve and can’t exercise….
Hey try Weight Watchers and i lost 50 pounds…without workouts noone can lose any weight as you know already. But you must follow the diet plan. I love WW diet plan and easy to follow. Filling food concept and no starving at all. Eating out, party foods, gtg, potluck everything possible with weight watchers diet.
are you guys dressing up according to the reciepes you make ?
I notice sometimes the color of your cloths are also matching with the items you use in the show.
If that’s true than very thoughtfull of both you ! you both look amaizing anyways. simple and sweet !
Hi there,
Thanks for noticing, we do have to keep in mind the cuisine and the mood of the food AND make sure we don’t clash in colors or styles between the 2 of us 🙂
Initially when we had just started SMTC, we had some major goof-ups with ward robe (no malfunctions – thank God) but let’s say we just learned a few lessons over the course of time 🙂
HI Hetal & Anuja !
Another great presentation ! Thank you very much !
one request if you can add a request to show us the reciepe for mendarian pizza vegetarian and the vege italian brusheta also the fettucine italian vege pasta in white sauce (for vegetarians ) ! They sound so yummy but dont know how to make it ! Please !!!!!!!!!!!! sorry if I spelled it wrong !
thank you so much in advance !
Thank you for your feedback 🙂 Will put those down on our list 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
I was so surprised to see zapiekanka here. Your version seems so tempting. I have to try it with jalapenos and olives. It will be delicious, I am pretty sure.
I am looking forward to seeing you in Poland. Maybe you could make one episode abroad? 🙂
Hi Piotr,
We’re glad you liked the zapiekanka (with our ShowMeTheCurry twist). I’m definitely looking forward to my Poland trip and meeting you as well. I’ll bring my camera. 🙂
After seeing your comment, I am thinking that you guys should carry your camera wherever you go and add the cooking parts to the website. We will enjoy meeting new people and seeing their ways of cooking too. Different parts of India and world are welcome.
I guess that will cost a little lot more to show me the curry isnt’t it?
but hey that’s a great idea ! not bad! we’d love to see Hetal and Anuja doing world tour with the camera for show me the curry ! lol !
Hmmmmmmm….we are looking for sponsors 😉
Great site, I return often, enjoy your web casts.
Came across this and thought it might help with the names.
They’re known as zapiekanki (plural) or zapiekanka (zah-peeyeh-KAHN-kah), which is singular. Zapiekanka comes from zapiekac, which means “to bake,” and is the culinary term for a casserole.
HI Nyle,
Thank you so much for stopping by and also thanks for the clarification, we learn something new everyday 🙂
hi guys
where can i find this french bread?
i always wanted to make subway sandwich at home but can’t find this bread…what brand and where did u guys buy it from??
You could check any grocery store. Safeway, Lucky’s, Trader Joe’s are good examples of this. They sell baked goods like rolls, cakes, pies, and breads. Take a look in that section. This is different from the aisle/section where you get the sliced bread in a bag, or hamburger buns. You could buy a long, semi-thick one like the one Anuja and Hetal used. Subway types of rolls should be available in that section too.
thanks for ur response.
omg everyone is after this orange spatula…i don’t know why..there are very nice spatulas at bed bath and beyond…kmart..walmart…anywhere
Hi Anuja and Hetal!! Love your website 🙂 Hey I guess you guys don’t have spatulas displayed in your online shopping store. Need to get one which can be used for all types of cookwares especially non-stick ones. The one that you are using seems good. Can you give me a suggestion as to where I can get it in your store? Thanks!!
Hi Priyanka,
We got these quite a while back and can’t find them anymore 🙁
Sorry!
This reminds me of a thread of comments that were posted on orange spatula 🙂
Yummy….sure want to try this :):)…
A quick question..Can I top it with Mexican cheese instead of Italian cheese?
Hi Shalini,
You can use any cheese that melts 🙂
Cool…thanks 🙂
Hi to both of you,
Thanks a lot for this great recipe. It sure is mouth watering for people who love bread with spicy veg. feeling with cheese & ovan baked….like my husband & me.
I will give it a try this weekend & will let you know the result which I know will be good.
Bye.
Excellent recipe as usual. You both are so beautiful and also funny. You make it so entertaining to watch.
I’m speechless! 😀 Would never suspect that you could post a recipe for humble zapiekanka. I doubt you can find a place in Poland where you can get a zapiekanka with olives, bell pepper, and chillis, but hey, good for you. 🙂 It looks very interesting, I have to try it this way some day.
A bit of explanation about the two forms:
1 zapiekanka (singular)
2 zapiekanki (plural)
I think what you meant in the video is using Polish surnames:
Piotr Kowalski (male)
Anna Kowalska (female)
All in all, thanks for this piece of Poland in Show Me The Curry! 🙂
Hi Marta,
Thanks so much for the clarifications and (the awesome) insight into Polish food and culture 🙂
We just “LOVE” the Zapiekanka 🙂
I do agree with Marta,
also i would like to add that you will NEVER find zapiekanka in Poland with meat on it!!!!!!! plus traditionally you put vegetables on top of baked mushrooms and cheese and they are fresh not fried, unless u want it without vegetables 🙂
thanks for amazing website and awesome recipies. I am a big fan 🙂
Hi Monika,
I am in Krakow, Poland right now and had a delicious lunch of zapiekanka in the historic Jewish Kazimierz district. Though I had a vegetarian mushroom & cheese zapiekanka, the restaurant also served Zapiekanka z Salami and Zapiekanka z Kebabem. The lady there told me it was chicken. Maybe different parts of Poland make it differently.
However, you are right about the veggies…not much more than mushrooms and the occasional red bell pepper. I hope the Polish people can try our rendition of zapiekanka…they may like thevariation 🙂
Looks very good. I will try this.
I make something similar to this called Tuscan-style Pizza. The idea is very similar. Instead of on a baguette, it’s made on pizza crust (or on thick pita bread). You take some veggies (bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, eggplant, zucchini, primarily; you can add others if you like)and saute them in olive oil until the eggplant is fully cooked (the others shouldn’t be wilted). Then add pizza sauce (Contadina brand is really good) to the veggies. Cook it a little more for a couple of minutes. Then pour the veggie-sauce mix onto the crust/bread. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake.
very nice !
thankyou for sharing !
Hello Ladies,
Was searching this recipe since long coz i have tasted it while in Poland and it was yummmmmmm!!!
Will try out your version soon!!!
By the way, apart from watching your recipes, I also like your dressing sense!! Just too cool!!! 🙂