If you ask me what my favorite side dish is, the answer is simple: spaetzle! Homemade! Fortunately we had them at home quite often! Here’s my recipe for homemade Swabian spaetzle.
Spaetzle (Spätzle) are egg noodles, where the dough contains significantly more eggs than typical pasta dough. The great thing about spaetzle: they are much more aromatic than normal pasta and due to their uneven shape and different consistency, they absorb sauce much better. And they also taste great with cheese as Käsespätzle (as in the picture above).
My recipe for Swabian spaetzle uses 50g flour per egg. Normal, typical pasta dough uses 100g of flour per egg. In addition, salt is added to the spaetzle dough. This, of course, makes the dough much stickier and gives it a viscous consistency. Therefore, this is also not rolled out like pasta dough, but processed directly.
To do this, the dough must be put into the cooking pot somehow in a noodle-like form. There are 3 variants to choose from for this.
3 variants to scrape or press spaetzle
For professionals: scraping from the board. For this, the spaetzle dough is applied to a board and scraped from the board into the pot with a dough scraper, noodle by noodle. I tried this once, burned my fingers on the hot steam, and gave up cursing. If I ever have leisure, I’ll try it again after intensive video study. Or someone in the kitchen will show me personally how to do it right.
My mom’s method: the “Grater”. Here, the dough is put into a “Spaetzlehobel” and by moving it back and forth, the dough is pushed through the holes. The advantage of the Spaetzlehobel: you can easily determine the length of the spaetzle yourself. This way, the spaetzle can be prepared a little shorter than with the following method.
My method: The spaetzle press. I prefer this variant, because it is the simplest and just as tasty (at least I think so). Very simple: put the dough in, hold it over the pot, press it down. The disadvantage: the spaetzle turn out long and a bit thinner than with the other two methods.
I have a press that is designed for spaetzle. It’s also easy to take apart and clean. However, I have seen some posts on the net that prepare spaetzle with a potato ricer. If this has fairly small holes, that should also work.
What to keep in mind when cooking spaetzle?
I’ll start at the back, with the cleanup 🙂: Very important: use cold water until all dough residue is removed. Otherwise, it cooks, becomes solid in the process and is difficult to remove. Also: when I’m done with a dirty item, soak it in cold water immediately. This will save you a lot of work!
The dough: The dough must be beaten vigorously with a thick wooden spoon until it’s airy. It is essential that air bubbles form, as these make the dough fluffy.
Place an empty bowl next to it for items you will need again. In the bowl you can put used cooking spoons or the spaetzle press or Spaetzlehobel. I prefer this variant, because it is the simplest and just as tasty (at least I think so). Very simple: put the dough in, hold it over the pot, press it down. The disadvantage: the spaetzle turn out long and a bit thinner than with the other two methods.
Don’t be stingy with the salt in the dough or water.
The spaetzle are ready as soon as they float to the top of the pot. Take them out with a skimmer and put them in a second pot of lukewarm salted water.
Serving the spaetzle or using them further
If you want to warm up the spaetzle: put some butter in a pan on low heat and warm up the spaetzle in it. Do not use the microwave and do not put them in hot water again!
If you want to put them on the table as a side dish, use a preheated plate or bowl. Here’s a trick: rinse the dish or plate briefly with water, drip the plate or bowl briefly (don’t dry it with a towel), and put the dish in the microwave for half a minute! This is the easiest and fastest way to get preheated plates.
For cheese spaetzle: put the finished spaetzle in a pan with butter and when hot, add a good amount (don’t be stingy!) of grated cheese. Any strong mountain cheese. The mildest cheese that would work for me would be Emmentaler. Appenzeller or Vorarlberger mountain cheese are great. And then on top of it properly roasted onions. This is a very typical and tasty dish in Southern Germany and the whole Alps.
With meat? With my recipe for German goulash 😊.
Recipe for original homemade Swabian Spaetzle
Ingredients
- 250 g flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 eggs medium size
Instructions
- Put the flour in a mixing bowl and mix it with the salt.
- Now make a well in the flour and put the eggs in it.
- Use the dough hook to knead the dough into a tough dough. If necessary, add a tablespoon of water.
- Once the dough is kneaded, it's time for your workout 🙂 .
- You'll need to use a large, sturdy wooden spoon to work air into the tough dough. So you beat the dough for several minutes so that numerous air bubbles form. You can see this clearly in the video above.
- Now put a large saucepan on the stove, salt the water heavily and bring it to a boil.
- Right next to it you need: another large pot half-filled with warm, salted water and a bowl or plate on which you can place the skimmer and the spaetzle press or Spaetzlehobel. Otherwise, the spaetzle batter will drip all over the place..
- Now put some spaetzle dough into the press or Spaetzlehobel and work the spaetzle into the cooking pot. Interrupt the pressing or planing process now and then and let the spaetzle drip down before you continue. Otherwise they will become too long.
- Stir well once and wait until they float to the surface.
- Now take them out with the skimmer and put them into the pot with the warm water.
- Repeat these steps until you are done.
- Immediately add cold(!) water to your bowl and soak all the parts that have come into contact with the raw dough.
- Otherwise, the dough will become rock hard and can only be removed with a lot of effort.
- Drain the spaetzle and serve them on a preheated plate or bowl, if possible.
- If you want to warm up the spaetzle: put some butter in a pan on low heat and warm up the spaetzle in it. Do not use the microwave and do not put them in hot water again!
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
Cooked with lots of love ♥ on From zero to curry.
