Spätzle (Updated - v2)

 

Pronounciation: ʃpætslə

Spätzle are the most important side dish of my tribe, the Schwaben (EN: Swabians). You can have them with meat and a rich sauce, or with spinach and fried egg, or simply with lots of melted cheese.
Important: They are similar to noodles, but they are not noodles

Preparation For doing Spätzle, you'll need: a big pot for 5 or 6 litres a big bowl to do the dough a bowl for the Spätzle, when they are done a wooden spoon with a hole in it for beating the dough a flat board a skimmer a scraper
Ingredients (for 2 persons) 140 g wheat flour 2 eggs ½ tsp salt 1 Tbsp. sunflower oil 30 to 50 mL water (depending on the size of the eggs)
The dough Put all the ingredients except the water into the bowl. Then add about 2/3 of the water, mix the dough well with the wooden spoon until everything is well mixed. If necessary, add water in very small doses if the dough becomes too firm. It should become very soft, but not too runny. When the dough is ready, beat with the wooden spoon as vigorously as possible for 2 to 3 minutes so that air gets into the dough. When you have finished this hard work, set the bowl aside and cover with a dry cloth. The dough must now rest for about half an hour, not much longer, otherwise it will become too firm.
Making the Spätzle Before cooking the spaetzle, the water in the pot must boil. Since this usually takes quite a while, you should start after 15-20 minutes. Bring about 4-5 litres to the boil, then add 2 tsp of salt. The water should boil all the time. After the dough has rested for about half an hour, take the board and the scraper and wet them both. Then put some of the dough on the wet board and spread it so that the dough is about half a centimetre thick. Then wet your hands with cold water (protects from the hot steam) and put the end of the board on the pot and scrape small oblong pieces of the dough into the boiling water. The pieces should be long like little worms, maybe 7 cm, and 3 to 5 mm in diameter (just about, depending on your taste). I like them quite thick, but many people prefer them thinner. The pieces need to stay in the boiling water until they float back to the top, about a minute. I always let them float for a little while after that. Then you can fish them out with the skimmer and put them into a bowl. Repeat these steps until all the dough is used up.