Thursday, October 23, 2014

Käsespätzle

Being of German descent with ties to the magical land of Bavaria, I like to honor my heritage when I can.  Normally this means drinking German beer, but sometimes I'll bring my German enthusiasm to the kitchen.  I decided to make Käsespätzle for dinner tonight, a dish which I usually describe as German macaroni and cheese.


It's a surprisingly simple yet labor-intensive dish, so I don't make it all the time.  When I do make it, Stevie gets excited because out of all of my signature dishes, this is her favorite.

Start by dicing an entire onion and putting them in a frying pan.  Then grate a hunk of cheese. You're supposed to use Bergkäse or Alpenkäse, but this style of cheese is hard to come by.  I find that Asiago is a good substitute.  Set a pot of water on the stove to boil, then make your dough.

You'll need some sort of contraption to add the dough to the water.  I bought this one in Bavaria in the 90's, but they're easy to get online nowadays.


The dough gets squeezed through the holes, drops into the boiling water, and once it returns to the surface (literally in seconds), it's ready to be scooped out.

Layer the dough and cheese, add the fried onions on top and sprinkle generously with pepper, and serve with a side salad.


Add your favorite Munich beer, play some Blasmusik, and have yourself a knee-slapping good night.

Viel Spaß!

3 comments:

  1. You better invite me over next time you make this!! Hope things are going well with the baby. When my stomach is back to normal I'll make you guys dinner or something.

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    Replies
    1. Suze, you have a standing invitation at our dinner table. I need to keep a list of the things I make when you come over. So far: Sunday brunch, pizza, salmon flambé...

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  2. Reading this while waiting at the Philly airport for my flight home to Munich made me looking forward to getting home even more (a.k.a. I miss my folks). Sadly, our kids don't fancy Käsespätzle that much, so we don't do it very often anymore (plus: carb-galore, which I don't allow for that often, too).

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