Käsknöpfle
Spaetzle with Swiss Cheese
Käsknöpfle, a dish of pasta tossed in cheese and served with onions and apple sauce, is one of Liechtenstein most traditional dishes. It's also one of the simplest. I still managed to mess it up.
Käsknöpfle is made with homemade späetzle, a Central European short egg noodle which is very common in Germanic cuisine. However, to make it properly you need a späetze maker and I didn't want to buy yet another kitchen gadget that I would probably never use again. Instead, I just bought dry späetzle, though I suspect that these are less chewy than the homemade version would be. That said, I've never been too fond of späetze when I've had it at restaurants.
What makes Liechtensteiner Käsknöpfle special are the cheeses used, which usually include both Appenzeller and Sura Käs, in addition to Gruyere. Sura Käs is a traditional cheese in Liechtenstein made from sour milk that can add a sour note to the dish, but which is not available in the US. Appenzeller is available online, but I didn't want to pay the shipping fees to get it here - or hunt all for it all over the East Bay. So I used a combo of Gruyere and raclette cheese. The results were OK, but I felt the cheese flavor needed to be stronger.
Rather than fry the onions after dusting them with flour, I caramelized them. I did this by pure instinct - I had seen other Käsknöpfle recipes that called for "brown" onions and I automatically cooked them that way. The sweetness of the onions really didn't go at all with the flavor of the cheesy pasta - and I'm someone who tends to like cheese with jam. I didn't even bother adding the apple sauce as I felt it would have made it worse.
In all, this might still be a good dish if made properly - but I'm not going to try again.
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Käsknöpfle
Ingredients
- 3 onions, cut into rings
- flour
- ghee or oil for frying
- 1 lb spaetzle
- 5 oz Gruyere cheese
- 5 oz Swiss cheese (e.g. Appenzeller, Emmental, Raclette, etc.), grated
- apple sauce
Directions
Coast onion rings with flour. Heat ghee in a frying pan over high heat. Add onion rings and cook until golden brown. Set aside.
Bring salted water to a boil. Add spaetzle and cook until al dente. Transfer to a bowl and add grated cheese. Mix well.
Serve with onion rings and apple sauce.
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Adapted from schoii's recipe at Reddit
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