Käsespätzle from ‘Winter Cabin Cooking’
This week, we’re spotlighting recipes from Winter Cabin Cooking: Dumplings, Fondue, Strudel, Glühwein, and Other Fireside Feasts by Lizzie Kamenetzky (Ryland Peters & Small), a British food stylist and writer and a former food editor for the U.K. food magazine, delicious. Try making the recipe at home and let us know what you think!
Photo: Nassima Rothacker
Käsespätzle
Serves 4 as a main or 6 as a side
This is an Austrian version of macaroni cheese that translates as ‘little cheese sparrows.’ You can buy special spätzle makers – I have a beautiful vintage one that my husband’s Austrian granny gave me – but you can use anything with holes, such as a colander or box grater, to make these tasty little morsels. Although this is perfectly delicious as a simple supper, I served these as a side with lemony roast chicken and it made a gorgeous Sunday lunch. You can try adding little pancetta or bacon bits into your onion as you fry for extra flavor.
400 g/3 cups plain/all-purpose flour
a good pinch of sea salt
freshly grated nutmeg
5 eggs
125 ml/1⁄2 cup water
100 g/scant 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced
200 g/1 3⁄4 cups grated Alpine melty cheese, such as a mixture of Gruyère and Emmenthal
ground black pepper
Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt and a good grating of nutmeg. Make a well in the center and add the eggs. Gradually stir, incorporating the flour, adding the water gradually. You should have a soft dough, almost like a thick batter. Keep beating until bubbles start to appear in the dough. Set aside to rest for about 30 minutes.
Melt 75 g/1⁄3 cup of the butter and the oil in a large pan and add the onions. Cook over a low heat for 15–20 minutes, stirring regularly until they are an even golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Take dollops of the dough and push through a spätzle maker, colander, or the large holes of a grater or potato ricer into the water. You should have little wiggles of pasta in the water. They will all end up different shapes, but don’t worry – that is how they should be.
Once they rise to the surface, they are cooked. Scoop out with a slotted spoon into a warm dish and continue cooking the rest of the dough.
Once you have cooked all the spätzle, empty the pan and return the cooked spätzle to it. Toss them with the rest of the butter and the cheese over a low heat until the cheese is melted. Season with plenty of black pepper and tip back into the serving dish. Serve scattered with the golden fried onions.
Reprinted with permission from Winter Cabin Cooking: Dumplings, Fondue, Strudel, Glühwein, and Other Fireside Feasts by Lizzie Kamenetzky (Ryland Peters & Small).
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