Pasta · Recipe · Swabia · Reference page
Käsespätzle
Käsespätzle
Egg and flour dough scraped from a wet board into boiling water, tossed with grated cheese and browned butter and topped with fried onions. Nanna Dorn-Zachertz's recipe for SBS Food's German Safari serves six to eight.
- Servings
- 6
- Preparation
- 15 min
- Cooking
- 20 min
- Resting
- 30 min
- Total
- 1 h 5
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Equipment
- Large bowl and wooden spoon
- Spätzle board (a wooden board) and a long knife, or a spätzle press
- Large pot; slotted spoon; large baking tray; frying pan
Ingredients
Dough
To finish
Method
Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the water, salt, pepper, nutmeg and oil.
Beating all the time, add the flour gradually, then the semolina, until the dough is smooth and bubbles appear. Too dry: add a little water or egg yolk. Too runny: add flour. Rest about 30 minutes.
Why Beating until bubbles form develops the dough so the spätzle are springy; resting lets the flour and semolina hydrate.
Timer · 30 min30:00Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Wet the wooden board in the water or under the tap.
Put a lump of dough on the wet board, hold it at a slight angle over the pot and scrape off thin strips with the back of a knife into the water. When the spätzle float, lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain and spread on a tray. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Why A wet board stops the dough sticking; floating means they are cooked.
Mix the cheeses through the hot spätzle.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the onion rings until brown, turning now and then. Lift them out, pour the butter over the spätzle and mix. Serve topped with the onions.
Substitutions
- Scraping from a board → A spätzle press or a large-holed colander pressed through with a spatula; easier but less traditional.
- Swiss cheese → Any well-melting mountain cheese, such as Allgäuer Emmentaler or Bergkäse.
Common mistakes
- A dry, stiff dough: the spätzle turn heavy. It should be thick but should fall slowly from a spoon.
- Crowding the pot: the water stops boiling and the spätzle stick together.
Storage & reheating
Best hot. Leftovers keep 2 days in the fridge; reheat in a buttered pan.
Safety
Many traditional mountain cheeses use animal rennet; vegetarians should check labels.
Allergens
Egg · Gluten · Milk
Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.
Dietary
vegetarian
A Swabian noodle with a protected name
Spätzle are the egg noodles of Swabia in south-western Germany. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 186/2012 of 7 March 2012 entered Schwäbische Spätzle / Schwäbische Knöpfle in the EU register as a protected geographical indication, class 2.7 (pasta), on Germany's application.
The recipe here is a home version for a crowd: Nanna Dorn-Zachertz made it for SBS Food's German Safari and says it is the dish homesick Germans crave. Her headnote translates the name loosely as "little cheese sparrows", from the irregular shapes.
Scraping from the board
The dough is closer to a thick batter than a pasta dough: eggs, water, flour and a little semolina beaten until smooth and bubbly, then rested. Small pieces are scraped off a wet wooden board with the back of a knife straight into boiling salted water, and lifted out as soon as they float.
The finish is simple: grated cheese stirred through the hot noodles, then the butter in which the onions were browned, with the onions on top.
How it connects
Place
- origin Swabia In preparation
Pasta shape
- related Spinach spätzle
Recipe
- similar Túrós csusza
- related Schwäbischer Kartoffelsalat
