What I'm cooking and eating

29 April 2017

Fried spätzle

When we were travelling in France I noticed that they sold, in the supermarkets, gnocchi which one was intended to fry, rather than the normal boil.  I bought some, and very delicious they were, too.  Then when we were in Germany last month, I saw packets of obviously pre-cooked spätzle (noodles) that were intended to be fried, and, again, they were very good. 

One can buy spätzle in this country, and I sometimes do, but nothing really beats fresh pasta, so I thought that I would try to replicate these German offerings at home.  And again, they were very good with a chicken casserole.  You do need a noodle maker, although if you don't have one you could try rolling out the dough very thin, rolling it up, and cutting it in thin strips to make noodles that way.

1/2 cup white flour (strong, if you have it)
1 egg
Enough water to make a dough
Salt, pepper, dried parsley or other herbs to taste.

Mix this all up to form a stiff dough, then press through a potato ricer/noodle maker (on the disc with the fewest holes) into boiling salted water.  Bring back to the boil, stir, and drain very well.  Now melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and fry the noodles on one side until golden (it doesn't matter if they clot into a sort of pancake), then turn and fry the other side.  Serve at once.