Today I want to introduce another Swabian Spezialität (delicacy) to you. It´s called “Maultaschen” and maybe it could be compared to Italian cannelloni (I suppose that most people know cannelloni) because it is as well filled pasta in a certain way.

There´s a cute story behind the Maultaschen and it goes like this: In earlier days (maybe even now) the Christian Mönche (monks) were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. This is because Jesus was crucified on a Freitag (Friday), so religious people should be abstinent on a day like this. But as you might know, the monks were “bon vivants” in culinary matters. At least they invented beer! So they thought themselves to cheat god in hiding the meat in a dough for Nudeln (noodles) so that he couldn´t see it. Not  stupid, is it?

There are also other legends about the Ursprung (origin) of Maultaschen but I guess this is the most common one. There´s even another word for it: “Herrgottsbscheisserle” (Swabian dialect, could be translated as “god cheaters”).

Maultaschen are very verbreitet (common) in the southwest of Germany. So you can order them in many variants at almost every restaurant that serves German food. Mittlerweile (Meanwhile) they are produced even industrially so it´s easy to prepare them at home. But nevertheless: If you make them selbst (on your own), they are much better!

You have to know that there are different ways to prepare them. But the primary recipe is always the same. Here it is:

Ingredients (4 people)

For the dough:

600g flour
4 eggs
8 egg yolks
½ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of olive oil

For the Füllung (filling):

5 buns, two days old
5 tablespoons of milk
5 eggs
500g sausage meat
100g mixed hamburger meat
1 cup of already fixed spinach
2 onions
2 tablespoons of oil
Salt
Nutmeg
Pepper
Some tablespoons of breadcrumbs

Preparation of the dough:
Put the flour on a big cutting board and make a Mulde (crater) in the middle of it. Scatter the salt and the eggs in it. Stir the eggs with a Gabel (fork). Put more and more flour from the border in it and start to knead it with your hands. When the dough is ready, separate it in four parts, pack the parts in transparent sheets and let it rest for at least an hour in the Kühlschrank (fridge).

Preparation of the filling:
Flitch the buns and put them in a bowl with the stirred eggs and the milk. Let it rest for a while. Then put the sausage meat, the spinach, the hamburger meat and the Gewürze (spices) into the bowl. Sear the onions with the oil and the breadcrumbs. Let it get cold and also put it in the bowl. Mix everything.

Preparation of the Maultaschen:
Try to roll out one of the four dough parts as rectangular and thin as possible. Spread some egg white on the dough. Then put tablespoons of the filling on it (with a certain distance). Put a second rolled out part of the dough onto it and push on the tough where there is no filling. Now cut the dough in the gaps.

Now put the Maultaschen in a big pot of cooking water (with some salt in it) and let them cook for about ten minutes.

The variations of the meals:

Roasted: Cut the Maultaschen to stripes of approx. 1 cm and roast them in a pan with some butter or oil and stirred eggs.

Soup: Put the Maultaschen in bouillon.

Original: Just put them on a plate as they are. Maybe with a little bit of butter.

I recommend to eat the roasted and the original variant with potato salad!

Enjoy your meal!!!