I love Käsespätzle. It is pretty much the epitome of comfort food. Warm, creamy, cheesy, savory…absolutely delicious! If you aren’t already familiar with Käsespätzle, it is a German and Austrian dish that falls somewhere in between mac and cheese and gnocchi. Käse means cheese in German, andSpätzle(which you might also see spelledSpaetzle) is the name of the fresh pasta or dumpling. Outside of Germany and Austria, you can also find the dish in places like Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia, and parts of France.
You can buy dried spätzle in a packet at the store–pretty much every grocery store in Germany and Austria, but usually only at specialty stores here in the US. I’ve bought them from World Market before, but have never seen them at my regular supermarket. Because they aren’t widely available here in the US, making spätzle is usually a rare treat for me.
My extended family has been staying in touch during quarantine via a large group message and nightly video chats. In one of those, my cousin mentioned she had just made spätzle from scratch. This practically blew my mind. “Spätzle from scratch? Doesn’t that require special equipment and lots of time?” No, apparently it requires neither and is actually pretty easy to make.
Most American recipes will tell you to put the dough through a spätzle press. The traditional method, however, uses a Spätzlebrett(spätzle board) and Spätzlemesser(spätzle knife). You can sub in a small cutting board with a handle and straight-edged bench scraper. My cousin sent me a video of a German woman making the dish, which you can watch to get a hang of the technique even if you don’t understand what she is saying.
I watched the video shortly before going to bed, and as I was trying to fall asleep, I kept seeing her use the knife to cut the dough and slide it into a pot of boiling water. That pretty much settled the matter as I was going to try and make spätzle myself. I’m glad I did, because it is not only tasty but incredibly satisfying!
I did not use the recipe from the video, I simply used one from Allrecipes, and made very few changes to it. If you are a meat-eater, feel free to add crumbled bacon or cubes of ham to this–it is often served with some sort of cured pork product in Germany.
From Allrecipes.com
Serves 2-4, depending on portion size
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- a few twists of freshly ground black pepper, or, if you insist on measuring it, 1/8 teaspoon
- 3 eggs
- 3/8 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion, sliced (and feel free to throw in a few mushrooms if you’ve got those lying around!)
- 1-1/2 cups shredded Emmentaler cheese, or sub in Asiago, white cheddar, or a combo of your favorite melting cheeses
Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Beat eggs in a small bowl. Alternately add the eggs and milk to the flour mixture, and stir until smooth. This is a relatively loose dough, almost more of a batter. Set aside for 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a separate pan, saute your onion in 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat. Cook the onion slowly to caramelize.
After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, get your cutting board and bench scraper. Dip both into the hot water to get them wet. Scoop a spoonful of dough onto the cutting board, and use the bench scraper to slice and roll small quantities of the dough directly into the boiling water. I really recommend watching the video for this technique. Once the spätzle have floated to the top, they are done, and can be removed with a slotted spoon. Remove the spätzle either into a bowl, or directly into the pan with the onions (but turn off the heat, if doing so). Continue with remaining dough.
In the pan with the onions, add cooked spätzle, remaining 1 tablespoon of butter, and 1 cup of cheese. Cook on medium heat for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted and everything is mixed together. Top with remaining half cup cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
