If you think the matzo ball is the ultimate Jewish soup dumpling, let me quickly disabuse you of that notion. As much as I love a fluffy matzo ball, my heart truly belongs to kreplach, the meat-filled pasta triangle known affectionately as Jewish tortellini and served during the High Holidays.

Never heard of kreplach? You are not alone. While matzo ball soup is a deli staple, kreplach has fallen into obscurity. You will not see chicken soup with kreplach on a menu outside of places that are deeply, intensely Jewish. And I don’t know anyone who makes kreplach at home anymore. Few people have the time or patience to spend an afternoon stuffing and folding small triangles of pasta.

However, if you truly love kreplach the way I love kreplach, you will carve out time to make them. Why do I love them so much? Part of it is that they remind me of my grandmother, who was a wonderful cook. She made kreplach only for the High Holidays and we waited all year long for that transcendent bowl of soup.

Then, of course, there is the fact that kreplach are delicious. Every culture has a meat dumpling and I have yet to meet one that I did not like. Tortellini, pirogies, manti, wontons — I love them all. I have an entire cookbook devoted to dumplings and I’m not afraid to use it. Kreplach just happens to be the meat-filled dumpling of my people.

Traditionally, kreplach are stuffed with shredded beef, sometimes leftovers from a holiday brisket. But if you are serving brisket for your main course, opening the meal with beef-filled kreplach seems unnecessarily cruel to your guests’ coronary health. So, I like to stuff my kreplach with a lighter filling of chicken thighs and livers. (I didn’t say it was a lot lighter.)

I’m not going to sugar-coat it: making kreplach is labor-intensive. But if you love a DIY project, this is a fun one. You can do it well in advance of when you plan to serve the kreplach because the dumplings can be frozen. And you can get the whole family in on the act.

I made the kreplach for my upcoming Rosh Hashanah dinner over Labor Day weekend when I had a little extra time and both my kids pitched in to help me stuff and fold the dumplings. Eight-year-old JR was quite skilled at it after a few tries and his kreplach are indistinguishable from my own. Just make sure that the kids wash their hands frequently because touching raw chicken is inevitable.

This recipe makes an enormous number of kreplach, about 5 dozen, but as I mentioned cooked kreplach freeze like a dream. So go ahead and make the whole batch: serve half to your holiday guests and freeze the other half for another time.

These will be the highlight of your Rosh Hashanah dinner, I guarantee it.

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Chicken Soup with Kreplach

Ingredients

Dough:
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 2-4 TB water
Filling:
• 1 TB vegetable oil
• ¼ cup chopped shallots
• 1 lb raw boneless chicken thighs
• 4 chicken livers
• 2 oz. chicken skin or fat
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup chopped chives
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. To make the pasta dough, combine the flour and eggs in a food processor and pulse to combine.
2. Pour the dough into a medium bowl and begin to knead, adding water as necessary for the dough to stick together.
3. Continue kneading the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
4. Wrap it in plastic and let it relax while you make the filling.
5. To make the filling, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the chopped shallot until softened, about five minutes.
6. Combine the shallots, raw chicken, chicken livers, chicken skin or fat and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until well combined and mixture resembles a coarse paste. Add chopped chives and process once or twice more. Season well with salt and pepper and set aside.
7. Divide the pasta dough into four parts. Keep the parts that you are not using covered to prevent them from drying out.
8. Using a pasta machine or a pasta-rolling attachment for a standing mixer, roll out pasta into thin sheets. (My pasta roller starts at 0 and I roll out my dough out to 6.)
9. Have the bowl of filling and a small dish of water handy.
10. Cut the sheet of dough into 3-inch squares. Place a small amount of filling, around ½ teaspoon, in the center of the square. Dampen two of the sides with water and then fold the square in half diagonally, pinching the edges closed tightly to avoid leakage.
11. Join the bottom two points of the triangle and pinch closed. Place the filled kreplach on lined baking sheets while you repeat the procedure with the remaining dough and filling.
12. Remaining scraps of dough can be cut into egg noodles and dried.
13. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the kreplach for six minutes. Drain well.
14. You can now refrigerate the kreplach until you are ready to reheat them in chicken soup prior to serving. If making in advance, freeze kreplach until needed.
15. Serve the kreplach in chicken soup garnished with chopped chives.

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