Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Plăcintă cu Brânză
Pan-fried or baked flatbread pockets stuffed with salty cheese, a Moldovan morning favorite.
Moldovan · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 20 min
~1133 cal · 49g protein · 86g carbs · 65g fat · 4g fiber · 6g sugars · 34g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Placinte are the stuffed pastries at the heart of Moldovan and Romanian home cooking, thin dough wrapped or coiled around a filling and then pan-fried or baked until golden and blistered. The name descends, distantly, from the Latin placenta, "flat cake", a reminder of how old this kind of pastry is in the region.
The fillings run from savoury to sweet, but the most classic is branza, the salty local sheep's or cow's cheese, sometimes mixed with dill or soft curd; potato, cabbage, pumpkin, and sour cherry are common too. Rolled thin and cooked in a dry or lightly oiled pan, the pastry turns crisp outside and tender within.
Sold warm from market stalls and made in home kitchens across Moldova, placinta cu branza is a satisfying, portable breakfast or snack, eaten out of hand with a glass of milk. Humble and homely, it is the kind of everyday food Moldovans are quietly devoted to.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 cups flour (for the dough)
2 cups brânză de vaci (fresh curd cheese)
Hard to find? well-drained full-fat cottage cheese or quark - drain it hard; a wet filling makes the placinte leak at the seams
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp salt
as needed warm water
3/4 cup telemea or feta (salty brined cheese), crumbled
a large handful fresh dill, chopped
3 spring onions, finely sliced
Instructions
1
Make a soft dough with the flour, a little oil, salt, and water; rest 20 minutes.
2
Mix the two cheeses with the egg (or plant yogurt), the dill, and the spring onions.
✎ Chef’s note
The two cheeses are the point: the fresh curd is mild and creamy on its own, and the salty brined cheese is what gives the filling its flavour. Taste before adding any salt.
3
Roll pieces of dough thin, fill, and fold into flat parcels.
4
Pan-fry in a little oil until golden on both sides.
5
Serve warm, while the cheese inside is still soft.
Chișinău tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Chișinău. Mamaliga stands in for bread and is cooked stiff enough to slice, traditionally with a thread rather than a knife. Branza is an umbrella word rather than one cheese, covering cow, sheep and goat alike, and the sheep version is simply the one most often reached for around here.
🗺️
Moldova. Moldovan food is rustic and wine-country generous, mămăligă polenta, cabbage rolls (sarmale), and plăcintă pastries. Sitting between Romania and Ukraine, it centers the garden, the vineyard, and the family table.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Moldova
Mămăligă cu BrânzăThick cornmeal polenta layered with salty sheep's cheese and sour cream, the soul of Moldovan tables.
ZeamăA tangy chicken noodle soup soured with fermented bran brine and fragrant with lovage, Moldova's restorative bowl.
CornulețeTender sour-cream crescents rolled around a sweet walnut filling and dusted with sugar, a Moldovan holiday cookie.
Browse all Moldova recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Moldova meal
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Plăcintă cu Brânză?
Pan-fried or baked flatbread pockets stuffed with salty cheese, a Moldovan morning favorite.
Where does Plăcintă cu Brânză come from?
Plăcintă cu Brânză is a Moldovan dish from Chișinău, Moldova.
Can Plăcintă cu Brânză be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Plăcintă cu Brânză recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Plăcintă cu Brânză safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Plăcintă cu Brânză take to make?
About 45 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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