Soft, spongy balls of fresh chhena cheese, cooked in light sugar syrup until they swell — the sweet Bengal is proudest of.
What makes it rosogolla
Fresh chhena: milk split with lemon or whey, drained and kneaded until smooth.
Rolled into balls and boiled in a thin sugar syrup, where they double in size.
Served cool, in their syrup.
Where it comes from
Both Bengal and Odisha claim it. In Kolkata, the confectioner Nobin Chandra Das is usually credited with the spongy white rosogolla in the 1860s; in Odisha, a rasagola has long been offered at the Jagannath temple in Puri, and Odias say theirs came first. Both states now hold a geographical indication for their own version, and the argument goes on.
Kolkata's is white, springy and squeaks faintly on the teeth; the Odia rasagola is often softer and can be cream-coloured. Either way it's chhena, kneaded smooth, rolled and boiled in syrup.
How it varies
Odisha rasagola
Odisha's own, often softer and sometimes lightly caramelised.
Nolen gurer rosogolla
Made with winter's date-palm jaggery, brown and smoky.
Rasmalai
Flattened chhena discs soaked in thickened, cardamom-scented milk.