German Spaetzle with Tomato Confit

 

German Spaetzle with Tomato Confit 

It's been a while since I cooked a good meal, but I've been running around like a madwoman recently trying to get things done. I swear, my laundry basket fills itself up magically every other day.

Tonight, I finally decided to tackle spaetzle. I first tasted it when I was in Spain for an international summer camp, and it was made by a German friend of mine named Felix. It was love at first bite, and since then I have only had it once more. I was in Berlin with Riley in 2011 and we scouted out a genuine German restaurant to have dinner one night (we had been living off of 2 Euro Döner Kebabs). When I saw spaetzle on the menu, I knew that was what I was going to get. If you are confused and keep wondering to yourself what spaetzle is (pronounced sh-pat-zle), it is an egg noodle that has a soft texture eaten in southern Germany and Austria. Sometimes, you will see it spelled spätzle, which is the German spelling. 

Normally, it can be served with different toppings and mixed with different ingredients: a lentil and sausage mixture, a cheese and fried onion mixture, beef stew, and sometimes it can even be combined with fruit as a sweet meal. Riley decided on tomato confit for the topping because it goes well with cheese and noodles (duh).

The taste of the noodles was really amazing, but the texture wasn't quite what we were going for. The colander we used to strain the dough had holes a tad too small. And the rounded bowl of the colander also made it hard to squeeze the dough through one specific area, which would have made the noodles more consistent, and also longer.

As for the recipe, I decided to go with Wolfgang Puck's spaetzle recipe. It looked pretty simple, and a bit better than a few others I had seen online. It didn't have many crazy ingredients, so if you have eggs, flour, milk, and cheese, you can probably make some kind of version yourself.

German Spaetzle

Ingredients:

4 egg yolks
1 egg
1 3/4 cups milk
1 pound (3 cups) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)
3 chicken apple sausages
1 cup mild cheddar
1 additional teaspoon butter 

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks, 1 egg, and milk together.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add the butter, and egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix with hand until well blended. Do not over mix at this stage. Cover the bowl and refrigerate. Allow the batter to rest for at least 1 hour. 

 

 

 

3. Bring salted water to a boil. Place a large-holed colander on top of the pot. Place the batter on the pan and force through the holes with spatula to form spaetzle. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes. 

 

 

 

4. Transfer cooked spaetzle to a bowl of ice water to shock. When cool to the touch, drain well. Stir in half the oil. (At this point you can cover and refrigerate up to 2 days) 

 

5. When ready to serve, over high heat place a large sauté pan until it gets very hot. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon butter and the boiled spaetzle. Add the butter and start to sauté the spaetzle. Let cook for 10 minutes without moving the pan to achieve a good brown color. Sauté until golden brown. 

 

 

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Finish with 1 cup cheddar, and cook for 2 additional minutes

 

As for the tomato confit, we did not use a recipe. We just kind of free styled it, and added ingredients we thought would compliment the tomato and spaetzle

Tomato Confit

 

Ingredients:

 

5 vine-ripe tomatoes

3 sprigs rosemary

1 large shallot, cleaned but whole

5 garlic cloves

4 tablespoons olive oil 

1 pinch sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place all ingredients in a shallow dish, and cover with oil

3. Cook for 2 hours, or however long it takes to cook while your spaetzle dough is sitting in the refrigerator. I put the confit in at the beginning of the spaetzle process, and the tomatoes came out soft and hot