During my recent holiday in Austria, I made a point of eating almost exclusively traditional dishes. Not just because we had Lyn with us, a South-African friend who had to be initiated, but also because I thoroughly enjoy eating this comforting food every once in a while. I could not survive exclusively on this diet as dishes tend to be quite substantial and not of the healthiest kind, but I just cannot resist them when my mum prepares them at home. This time I made sure I was not just eating, but also watching and helping in the kitchen. You will be seeing more Austrian recipes over the next few days and weeks - today's post is for all of you who have been skiing in the Alps at some point and had a delicious pasta dish in one of the comfy chalets - Kässpätzle. You must have fallen in love with them.
The word “Spätzle” (or spaetzle) refers to tiny pieces of dough, something between fresh pasta and dumplings. Easy, cheap and quick to make, these little nuggets are used as a side dish for gulash and other meat dishes. However, the best way of eating them is either baked in the oven (for Kässpätzle) or (with the individual pieces slightly bigger) fried in a pan with eggs (for Eiernockerl). Last week we made both out of one batch of dough - either follow our lead or double the quantities for the egg mixture or the cheese accordingly.
For the Spätzle you will need a special tool, a Spätzle-maker or a Spätzle-mesh. I have tried both and find the former much easier to handle. With the latter, the dough has to be of a certain consistency, otherwise half of your pasta will be overcooked before you have pushed everything through into the water.
Spätzle-makers are available in specialist shops or by mail order, cooking.com has some pictures and descriptions. There are two kinds: one resembles a food mill and the other a cheese grater. Both push the dough through little holes to drop tiny dumplings in simmering water where they cook in no more than 3 minutes. You then finish your Spätzle either in a pan on the stove or in the oven - with gooey cheese (go for traditional Vorarlberger Bergkäse or other strong hard cheeses like Gruyère or Appenzeller), eggs, fried bacon, mushrooms... whatever takes your fancy, really!
Kässpätzle and Eiernockerl
(serves 4)
30 g butter
pinch of salt
400 g all-purpose flour
400 ml milk
butter for the pans (ca. 10 g)
For the Eiernockerl:
2 shallots (thinly sliced)
2 eggs (well beaten)
grated nutmeg (ca. 1 pinch)
chives (cut in thin rolls)
For the Kässpätzle:
15 g freshly grated cheese (bergkäse, appenzeller, gruyere, etc)
Mix the butter, salt, flour and milk in a bowl with a hand-held mixer. Bring 2 pots of salted water to the boil. Turn down the heat, too much will make the pasta disintegrate. The dough must not be too runny, but should be soft enough to push through the mesh of the Spätzle-maker.
Put two oven-proof dishes in your preheated fan oven (220 C). Divide 10 g of butter between the two. In the pan for the Eiernockerl, brown the thinly sliced shallots in the butter. (Alternatively, you could prepare the Eiernockerl in a pan on the stove.)
For the Eiernockerl form little dumplings of ca. 2 cm diameter with a wet teaspoon, dropping them into the simmering water as you go. For the Kässpätzle use a Spätzle-maker to form smaller dumplings. In both cases, the pasta will be done when all the dumplings have returned to the surface of the water - for Spätzle, this should take ca. 3 minutes, allow 5-10 minutes for the Nockerl.
Drain the cooked pasta and add to their respective pans in the oven. Now pour over the egg mixture for the Eiernockerl and the grated cheese for the Kässpätzle. When the eggs have set and the cheese has melted and is starting to bown, take out of the oven, sprinkle the chives over the Eiernockerl and serve with a green salad.
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