Nigel Slater’s Spätzle and Cheese

/ July 10, 2015

It’s been a rather quiet few days on the blog, with my new celebrity lifestyle taking its toll: marking piles of coursework, planning the final lessons of the year and getting two kids from A to B via C. I even considered buying outsized sunglasses, but then remembered that our heatwaves are as short-lived as our summers. All that probably explains why it took me so long to share with you the wonderful dish Nigel Slater came up with: the ultimate ‘Spätzle Cheese’.Nigel Slater's Spaetzle and Cheese 2 Taking his cue from the traditional macaroni cheese, Nigel took fusion food to another level by adding smoked cheese and speck to the Swabian ‘Kässpätzle‘. Needless to say, my purist Swabian friends were slightly shocked at the idea of adding speck to the traditional Kässpätzle, never mind cream. But I am convinced that no German worth their salt should ever object to adding processed meat and cream to their beloved carbs! I have always admired Nigel Slater’s unconventional approach to food: his recipes are often intended to be a starting point for your own explorations, often giving you ideas and suggestions as to how to develop his own idea into something that suits your preferences or needs. He really is a man with a mission, and his mission is to get people to enjoy food, and enjoy cooking good food. When presented with my Spätzle, he immediately started looking for a way to convince people to try this at home. Giving them the ‘Macaroni Cheese’ treatment was a stroke of genius! That leaves you with the Spätzle, I am afraid. On ‘Eating Together’ I was using the traditional board and scraper, tools that haven’t really changed in the last hundred-odd years, as this illustration from my family cookbook from 1912 proves:Spätzle recipe 1912 Learning to cut Spätzle the old way takes time – you can always read my instructions here – but fortunately there are shortcuts to achieving these light and airy noodles. Marita recently alerted me to the fact that you can buy a ‘Spätzleschwob’ like this one quite cheaply on Amazon:Spätzleschwob But you don’t need to invest heavily: using a potato ricer or a colander, or even a grater with large holes is just as efficient, and you might have either of them already in your kitchen! Spätzle or Knöpfle Using a colander makes for shorter noodles, which explains why they are not called ‘Spätzle’ anymore, but instead become ‘Knöpfle’, or ‘little buttons’. Knöpfle are widespread in Switzerland, the Allgäu and along the Rhine in southern Germany, a region called Baden, where they are as central to the cuisine as Spätzle are in Swabia. The principles are the same as for Spätzle, and you will need to adjust the consistency to be able to push the dough through the holes and into the boiling water. I hope you’ll give Spätzle a try – even Nigel Slater was surprised at how light and airy they were!

Nigel Slater’s Spätzle and Cheese (serves 4)

For the Spätzle:

  • 400g/14oz plain flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 3-4 tbs sparkling water
  • a generous pinch of salt, to taste
For the sauce:
  • 300ml double cream
  • 180g cheese, Emmentaler or Gruyere for me, Bavarian smoked cheese for Nigel, grated or finely diced
  • 100g prosciutto, speck or cured ham, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • salt, pepper
For the Spätzle, mix together all the ingredients, adding the water as necessary. You want to have a smooth, loose dough that comes up in big bubbles as you beat it:Spätzle Lightly grease your oven dish with a little butter and set it aside to receive the finished Spätzle. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, adding a pinch of salt. Using your potato ricer or your colander, place a good dollop of the batter into it and gently push it into the boiling water. Use a spoon or a scraper to push it through the holes if you are using a colander.Knöpfle 1 Knöpfle 2Once the noodles float to the top, sieve them out and give them a quick rinse under cold water – this will prevent them from sticking together. Keep repeating the process until you have used up all the batter. Collect them in the oven dish. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4.Cheese sauce 1 For the sauce, gently fry the pancetta with only a hint of butter until it begins to release the fat. In a small saucepan, heat up the cream. Stir in the cheese and finally the speck. Keep the greasy frying pan – you want to use the fat to fry the onions! Season, taking into account that the ham and cheese will be quite salty already. Pour the sauce over the Spätzle, using a fork to distribute the meat evenly.Spätzle and Cheese sauce Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. In the meantime, fry the onion rings in the frying pan with the bacon fat. Cheese sauce 2 In ‘Eating Together’, Nigel baked the fried onion rings in the oven with the Spätzle. I decided to add them at the end, which leaves them a little more moist, which provides a nice contrast to the noodles. Simply sprinkle the golden onions over the finished dish and tuck in.Spätzle and Cheese 4 Serve with a green salad – lamb’s lettuce and rocket create a lovely bitter balance to the slight sweetness of the cheese – and with beer. German wheat beer, even, which goes perfectly with this dish. Ask the film crew, who kindly finished our drinks!Nigel Slater and Steffi

As always on a Friday, I’ll be bringing this dish over to Angie’s for her weekly Fiesta Friday gathering. It’s going to be a little quieter than usual, but that shouldn’t stop us from popping over and saying hello!

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42 thoughts on “Nigel Slater’s Spätzle and Cheese”

  1. I watched the Eating Together series and I was looking for your appearance 🙂 Creating the Spätzle with the board looked quite tricky so I am glad you have shown a few alternatives here! The dish you and Nigel created did look very tasty so thanks for sharing here!

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    • It just takes a little time and patience. Andy scraper will do, there are crescent-shaped rubber ones that work really well. You need a board you can grip, though, and one that’s fairly thin so you can scrape them off it. It really isn’t that hard, adjust the consistence to see what works best for you! I’d start with 100g flour/1 egg – that way you can call it a day when you’re tired!
      Looking forward to your upcoming post 😉

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  6. A shame I can’t see the program here, I do love Nigel Slater’s books and watched him when I was in the UK. I love spaetzle but have never made them partly due to the lack of tools so nice to see some alternatives. And it sounds like a great dish you created!

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    • The episodes are on youtube, and they were amazing! Iranian sweets, Caribbean soup, Brazilian fejoada – you name it. The show really summed up why London’s such a great place to live in!

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  12. Spätzle are one of my favourite treat during Autumn and winter season… but, frankly, looking at your dish now, when over here we have 29 degrees, I wouldn’t mind have a plate! They look too good to pay attention to temperature!

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  17. What an amazing opportunity! Not being in the UK, I was very happy to find the episode on YouTube. It was so interesting to see the noodles being made. I’ve made homemade pasta before, but that was an entirely different process.

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  20. I think my purist Bavarian boyfriend would have a fit if I suggested adding cream and prosciutto to spätzle, but this looks like the most delicious comfort food! When temperatures have dropped a little, I am definitely making this.

    Though I’m also a fan of pure Käsespätzle (with a good mix of gruyere, Emmenthaler and Bergkäse) with fried onions and slices of regular bacon. With a bowl of salad to take away that gluttonous feeling.

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