It’s dinnertime in Vienna, Austria. It’s been a long day. We’re hungry. Thirsty, too! We’re looking for a restaurant we saw yesterday while exploring the pedestrian zone of the Innere Stadt. I’m hoping they serve spaetzel. I’ve never had it, but I’ve heard that it’s spaetzelicious!
While in search of the restaurant, the mighty bells of St. Stephan’s Cathedral just about knocked us off our feet. What an amazing sound. I know the restaurant is just around the corner from Stephansplatz, so it has to be close by.
No Schnitzel Tonight
Like most restaurants around here, it seems, this place is famous for its wiener schnitzel. I’ve never met a wiener schnitzel that I didn’t like, but I had schnitzel for dinner last night, and there’s another dish that I’m anxious to try. It’s called spaetzel.
Spaetzel is a type of German egg noodles. Just like Italian pasta, you can do just about anything with it – pour sauce on it, put vegetables in it, put a piece of meat on top of it, etc.
To make spaetzel, start just like you’re going make pasta. What’s the first step? Is it getting in the car to go to the store to buy pasta? No, no, no. We’re going to actually MAKE fresh pasta, like in Italia!
Put some flour in a bowl. One thing that’s different from making pasta is that at this point, add a bit of nutmeg into the flour. Whisk it all around so it blends in. Nice.
Makin’ Der Spaetzel
Then make a well, so it looks like a volcano. Break some eggs into the well. Take a fork and start swirling the eggs into the flour around the edges, just like you’re an Italian nonna making the day’s pasta dough.
Now, instead of taking it out and forming a ball of dough, add a little milk. Mix it in until you have something that’s like pancake batter, but just a little thicker. Nutmeggy pancake batter… sounds good, eh? Let it rest ten minutes, and then you’re ready to get cooking.
To cook the spaetzel batter, bring a large pot of water to boil, just like you’re going to make pasta. To form the spaetzel, grab a little cutting board that you can hold in one hand.
Plop some spaetzel batter onto the cutting board. Hold the board half-way over the pot of boiling water with one hand, and with the other hand, take something with an edge to it and shear off a little edge of the batter so that it falls into the water.
The pieces should be uneven, each one with a different shape. You don’t want them all to be identical. They should look like little worms. Slice enough off to cook in one batch.
Spaetzel Maker? Nein.
If you’re serious about your spaetzel, instead of following the steps above, you can use a spaetzel maker. It’s essentially a grater with a sliding piece attached. Put the dough in the attached piece, push down and slide, and spaetzel worms emerge from the other side.
If you’re making mass quantities of spaetzel, this is probably the way to go, but be forewarned – your spaetzel worms will be nearly uniform. And some would say, slightly lacking in character. I’ll stick with the manual method.
Your spaetzel worms will cook in just two or three minutes. When they start floating, take them out with a strainer. Put them into a colander to drain, then cook the next batch. When they’re all cooked and drained, you’re ready for the final step.
Austrians like to put a little butter in a frying pan, get the pan very hot, then add the spaetzel and sauté for just a few minutes. It doesn’t take long, since they’ve already been cooked once.
Meanwhile, start getting something else ready that you’re going to mix in with the spaetzel. How about some sautéed mushrooms and shallots. Maybe some peas. Did someone say “pancetta?” Maybe all of the above?
To be continued…
