Gerry-in-America: Lets have "Spätzle"!

Even though it is always interesting to explore other cultures and different food, it is still wonderful to have some traditional German food. Among the interns, we have a lot of people from Swabia who know how to prepare home made "Spätzle". Spätzle are a type of egg noodle of soft texture found in the cuisine of Germany and of Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Alsace and of Bolzano-Bozen.

Spätzle dough typically consists of few ingredients, principally eggs, flour, and salt. Often, water is added to produce a thinner dough.

Traditionally, Spätzle are made by scraping dough off a wooden chopping board ("Spätzlebrett") into boiling salt water where they cook until they rise to the surface. They are then skimmed and put aside.

Since this can be a cumbersome way to prepare spätzle, several devices were invented to facilitate cooking that resemble a strainer, (or colander), a potato ricer ("Spätzlespresse"), a food mill or coarse grater ("Spätzlehobel"). Like with scraped Spätzle, the dough drops into the boiling water.

Lucky enough, Mona has a special ricer for Spätzle and so we had a lot a fun to make them. Mona gave instructions and I was happy to press my first "Spätzle":-)