Käsespätzle

It is layered and baked between the layers, never stirred together.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains emmentaler whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 1 quantity spätzle, as on its own page, hot
• 300 g Emmentaler or Bergkäse, grated
• 3 onions, sliced thin
• 60 g butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Method

1. IT IS LAYERED AND BAKED BETWEEN THE LAYERS, NEVER STIRRED TOGETHER. Its Preparation section is four lines and this is all of it: hot spätzle and grated cheese ARE GLAZED ALTERNATELY AND FINALLY TOPPED WITH FRIED ONIONS, and AFTER ADDING EACH LAYER, THE DISH IS BAKED UNTIL ALL THE CHEESE IS MELTED.
2. SO THE OVEN IS USED SEVERAL TIMES AND NOT ONCE. Stir cheese through hot noodles and it goes stringy and then greasy; melt it layer by layer and each layer sets before the next arrives.
3. THE CHEESE IS NAMED AND IT MATTERS. EMMENTALER OR BERGKÄSE, says the article -- firm mountain cheeses that melt without separating. A soft cheese will oil.
4. MAKE THE SPÄTZLE FIRST AND KEEP THEM HOT. Hot noodles melt the cheese on contact, which is what the layering depends on. Cold ones will not.
5. FRY THE ONIONS SLOWLY AND SEPARATELY UNTIL DARK. Twenty minutes in butter over a low heat. They are the topping and they are the only sweetness in the dish.
6. BUILD IT IN A SHALLOW DISH: noodles, cheese, noodles, cheese. Three layers of each is enough for four people, and a shallow dish beats a deep one because every layer needs to reach heat.
7. INTO A HOT OVEN FOR FIVE MINUTES AFTER EACH LAYER. Two hundred degrees. It is finished when the top layer has melted, not browned.
8. THE ONIONS GO ON AT THE VERY END, OUT OF THE OVEN. Baked with the last layer they burn, and the article has them finally on top.
9. SERVED WITH A GREEN SALAD, or with apple sauce, both of which the article names as what accompanies it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes