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Homemade tarhoňa egg pasta: grate the dough, dry it, and toast before cooking

Name: Homemade tarhoňa egg pasta: grate the dough, dry it, and toast before cooking
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 25 h 20 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Slovak
Ingredients: 400 g Coarse wheat flour (semolina-like); 2 Eggs; 3 tbsp Water; 1 tsp Salt; 2 tbsp Lard; 1 Onion; 1 l Water; 1 tsp Salt

Homemade tarhoňa egg pasta is grated, dried, toasted in lard with onion, then simmered. Serves 8 as a side for roast meat or goulash.

Slovak cuisine · Grandma’s recipes · Translated from Slovak · November 1, 2026

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Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 25 hr 20 min
Servings: 8 servings
Difficulty: Medium
Cuisine: Slovak

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Tarhoňa is tiny pasta made from stiff egg dough, cooked as a side dish instead of rice or small dumplings. Make it at home with coarse wheat flour, eggs, and salt. Grate the stiff dough on a coarse grater, let the pieces dry for about a day, then toast them in lard with onion until golden before cooking. Toasting helps the pieces stay intact and gives them a nutty flavor. Serve with roast meat, pörkölt (a paprika meat stew), or goulash. You can store the dried pasta in a jar for later.

Ingredients

8 servings

Units

Dough

Coarse wheat flour (semolina-like) 400 g
Eggs 2
Water 3 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp

For toasting and cooking

Lard 2 tbsp
Onion 1
Water 1 l
Salt 1 tsp

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Instructions

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

Knead a stiff dough
15 min
Place the flour in a bowl, add the salt, eggs, and water, and knead into a very stiff, dry dough. It should be difficult to knead and should not stick to your hands. If it crumbles, add 1 tbsp water.
Let the dough rest
30 min
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes so the flour can absorb the moisture and the dough can be grated.
Grate the dough
10 min
Grate the dough on the coarse side of a grater onto a dry kitchen towel. Separate the pieces with your hands so they do not stick together, and spread them in a thin layer.
Let dry
24 hr
Let the pasta pieces dry at room temperature for about 24 hours, stirring occasionally. They are ready when hard and dry. Once dried, they can be stored in a dry jar for several weeks.
Toast the pasta
10 min
Finely chop the onion and sauté it in the lard in a wide pot until softened. Add the tarhoňa and toast, stirring constantly, until golden, about 8 minutes.
Cook the pasta
15 min
Pour in the hot water, add the salt, and simmer, covered, over low heat for about 15 minutes, until the pasta absorbs the water and becomes tender. Add more water as needed. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Tip: Without drying, the pasta pieces will stick together during cooking; to dry them more quickly, place them in the oven at 60 °C (140 °F) with the door slightly open for about 2 hours. Prepare store-bought tarhoňa the same way, starting with the toasting step. Read more: Lard in the kitchen: baking and frying

Nutrition facts

Approximate values per serving, calculated from the ingredients

Energy: 234 kcal
Protein: 6.9 g
Carbohydrates: 39 g
of which sugars: 0.7 g
Fat: 4.9 g
of which saturates: 1.7 g
Fiber: 1.6 g
Salt: 1.5 g

Calculated from the raw ingredients, without frying oil. Where an amount is “to taste”, typical amounts are used. Food composition: USDA FoodData Central and product labels.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Domáca tarhoňa z múky a vajec: tuhé cesto nastrúhate, usušíte a pred varením opražíte