Syrna Zapikanka (сирна запіканка, baked curd pudding)

Curd cheese looks soft until you bake it badly. Then every little grain announces itself. Rub the syr, our fresh curd cheese, through a sieve first and it changes character: no lumps, no wet pockets, just a pale, even crumb that cuts clean but still trembles a little on the spoon.

This is breakfast, after-school food, budget food, comfort food, the thing you bake when there is curd in the fridge and no one has the patience to stand at the pan making syrnyky one by one. The semolina matters because it drinks what the curd gives off. Let it sit before baking, and the batter thickens from loose and glossy to something that falls from the spoon slowly. Aunt Nadia wrote only "leave it until it knows itself," which was unhelpful and also correct.

Serve it warm or cold, with smetana and sour cherry preserves if you have them. If one edge browns more than the other, give that piece to the person who hovers in the kitchen. They earned it.