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Spätzle – Swabian Pasta Posted by on Sep 22, 2010 in Culture, Food, Traditions

Today I want to introduce a Swabian delicacy to you. It´s called “Spätzle” and it is really the number one pasta in the south of Germany, especially in Baden-Württemberg.

Spätzle are mostly self made and can be eaten as a side order in combination with other food (like all kinds of meat for example) or, in combination with other ingredients, as a main dish. There are industrial made Spätzle as well, but I cannot recommend them!

There are different ways to prepare Spätzle. The way I do it is with a special machine. This way the Spätzle are prepared much faster. Especially when you don´t have the manual skills like older generations. Nevertheless you will learn more about the manual way in the youtube video on the bottom.

Recipe

The recipe for the dough is quite simple. You only need the following ingredients (for 4 persons):

  • 500g flour
  • 4-5 eggs
  • Some water (approx. 150 ml)
  • Some salt

You put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir as long until the dough gets some bubbles. Therefore you can use whether a wooden spoon or some stirring gear. Before you start preparing the dough you can already set up a big pot filled with water on the stove.

So when the water boils, you put some of the dough in the machine (or on a wooden board, depends on the way you do the Spätzle) and press them into the water. When the Spätzle come to the surface of the water, let them boil another minute. Then catch them with a basting ladle and put them in a sifter to get rid of the rest of the water.

Now repeat the whole thing until all of the dough is gone. Voila! Enjoy your meal!

The most popular meals with Spätzle are the following:

Linsen mit Spätzle (Lentils with Spätzle) – Typical Swabian

Gaisburger Marsch – Swabian Hotpot

Leberspätzle – Another ingredient for the dough is liver in this variation

Kässpätzle – This is the most popular variation which has its tradition in “Schwaben”, in the “Allgäu” and in “Vorarlberg” (specific regions in Germany and Austria). They are prepared with different sorts of cheese and onions. Very delicious!

There are a lot more variations, but if you know these ones, you´re already a connoisseur 🙂

Here´s a cute video I found on youtube. It shows an elderly Swabian woman preparing Spätzle in different ways. It´s all in German, but I think you will catch the most important things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeT8GMar9pw

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About the Author: jan

My name is Jan and I live in the south west of Germany. My profession is being a project manager at a company that creates digital media (first of all internet related things). This is my job since over a decade so I´m quite familiar with the web and its tools. Whereat today almost every school kid does. But that´s one of the main reasons why nowadays there are quasi no more limits in the internet and so it can be used for all imaginable types of things. For example learning languages! And that´s where we are at the moment. I first got in touch with Transparent Language when my family and I used to live in France a couple of years ago. I just had a break from work and by coincidence I produced some cultural videos in French. A few months later the whole blogging thing came up and I was lucky to be a part of it. So now my (second) job is to feed you with information, exercises, vocabulary, grammar and stories about Germany and German language. For being a passionate videographer I´m trying to do this more and more by videos. If you have any wishes or needs of topics that should be treated here, please don´t hesitate to contact me via a comment field. I´m open to your suggestions (as long as they are not too individual) and will try to satisfy your needs.


Comments:

  1. Colonel Korn, OXOjamm:

    Ill Be Darn! People makin it so we canCook German Food! I used to speak German Durin tha Great WW 2! But Cuz I aint been praktisin for a long time I lost it…
    Well I sure am gratful for learned it in tha frst place! I talked some Nazi Snipers in ta lettin us past in exchange for some chocolate bars an another time some girls showed us where they was keepin their secret stash o Jazz records hid from tha Gee-Stapo! Man did we have fun! Well, I wanna thank you all for tryin ta teach me again an maybe ill give it a wherl but ifn I cant do it its cuz Im gettin on in age an not playin with a full deck anymore….. Just remember that I never hated you Germans and not even the Natzis really its just that I needed A job an the OSS was all I could get. So, please remember that I never really hated you germans, nothin personal an so, Gott Mit Uns to all you nice people especially them Girls that we had such fun with listenin to records an such an a big plate o them German Spetzles they made for us which I still can taste if I think about it for more than a few seconds!.
    Signed,
    Col. Korn, Chief O Mayhem Durin The Great WW 2 an Later Durin the Cold War (I really did hate the commies though an I sent a whole lot of um to that great big Gulag in the sky ) and recent Keepin theives from stealin from OXOjamm Studios,WWW.OXOjamm.com