Buckwheat groats (gretshkes/greytshkelach or retshkes/reytshkelach in Yiddish) are prepared separately from, and then fried together with, lokshen and tsvibelach (onions) in schmaltz (poultry fat).
They brought with them food of their tradition including kasha varnishkes to America, and it became widely popular in the American Jewish cuisine and community.
[2] One of the first records of the dish is in an 1898 Yiddish play Die Mumeh Sosye (Aunt Sosya) by Abraham Goldfaden.
[2] A recipe published in a Yiddish American cookbook in 1925 shows kashe-filled noodles or dumplings, rather than the simpler kashe with farfalle.
[3][4] Food writer Gil Marks proposes that the dish was developed in New York City in the late nineteenth century through cultural exchange with Italian pasta makers.