Schwäbische Spätzle

Appearance & taste

Schwäbische Spätzle are naturally golden yellow to pale yellow, have an irregular shape and a rough, porous surface. The specification speaks of a home-made character. Their shape ranges from thin to thick and from elongated to short. The names Spätzle and Knöpfle refer to the same product made from the same dough; according to the specification, a distinction is hardly possible, and the transitions are seen differently from region to region. Cooked, they are firm to the bite and do not stick together.

They are offered fresh for immediate consumption, pasteurised and/or chilled or frozen, and as dried pasta that keeps.

Production

Dried Spätzle consist of durum wheat and/or spelt semolina, fresh egg and drinking water, with at least 2 eggs per kg of semolina; as a rule there are 4 or 6. For fresh Spätzle, whole egg and/or fresh egg is used, at least 8 eggs per kg of semolina and flour, and the semolina may be replaced wholly or partly by wheat or spelt flour. Salt (up to 1 %), spices, herbs and spinach are allowed, and for fresh Spätzle also citric acid and a neutral-tasting, non-colouring edible oil for coating.

The ingredients are mixed and kneaded until the dough is stiff. It is then shaped and put into a cooking bath or steam: it is pressed or drips through perforated plates and may be cut in the process. According to the specification, Spätzle are the only pasta that is cooked for the first time during production. Dried products are then pre-dried and dried, fresh products pasteurised where applicable and chilled to 2 to 7 °C or frozen. Traditionally, Spätzle are scraped by hand; hand-scraped Spätzle from the board are still regarded as a special mark of quality. Machine production arose at the beginning of the 20th century.

Origin & history

The area of Swabia covers all of Baden-Württemberg and the entire administrative region of Swabia in the Free State of Bavaria. According to the specification, the tradition of making Spätzle can be traced back to the 18th century: in 1725 the Württemberg councillor and personal physician Rosino Lentilio summed up “Knöpflein” and “Spazen” as “everything that is prepared from flour”. In the poor region of small farms, spelt, which thrives even on poor soils, was widespread at the time. Because spelt flour contains a lot of gluten and the dough worked even without eggs in times of need, Spätzle were made mainly from spelt. They became well known on the Münsinger Alb.

The novel “Die Geschichte von den sieben Schwaben”, first published in 1827, reports that in Swabia people ate soup five times a day and, twice, Knöpfle or Spätzle with it. With industrialisation and growing prosperity, Spätzle changed from everyday food to a dish for special occasions. In 1936 the regional poet Sebastian Blau called them “the foundation of our cuisine, the glory of our land”. Patents were filed so that machine-made Spätzle would also look hand-scraped, for example German Reich Patent 471046. Exhibitions in Ofterdingen and in the Beuren open-air museum document their production in Swabia. Today almost all pasta makers and restaurateurs in the region offer Spätzle, and since the 1980s they have also been exported.