When I was in Germany last weekend, the friend I was visiting was trying her very best to ensure that I got the full German experience. This largely seemed to involve eating as much traditional German food as possible, which is why one evening we found ourselves making spätzle. Spätzle are a soft egg noodle which work as an accompaniment to other dishes. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to making your own (works best if you have a spätzle press!).
Ingredients (for spätzle)
250g flour
3 eggs
pepper, salt, nutmeg (to taste)
1 small glass of water
Ingredients (for topping)
1 onion, diced
1 small pack of diced bacon/lardons
1 can of lentils
vegetable stock
salt and pepper
chives
oregano
Method
- Mix spätzle mixture together in a bowl until you have a smooth mixture.
- Leave to settle for 20 minutes whilst preparing your topping.
- Fry the onion and bacon, then add the lentils and seasoning.
- Squeeze the spätzle mix through a press into boiling water. When it floats, take it out and place into bowl. Repeat until you have used the whole mixture.
- Serve with topping and enjoy.
I thoroughly enjoyed making spätzle, although I do think most of the fun did come from making it rather than eating it. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it – but the novelty was the most exciting part. I thoroughly enjoyed it with our lentil topping, although in future would be tempted to make a topping more similar to my lentil chilli. Apparently it also works well as a pasta substitute in a carbonara sauce. Now I’m back in the UK, I just need to locate a spätzle press!
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