Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from David Bouley, Mario Lohninger, and Melissa Clark's book East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube. Lohninger also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page.
To read more about Lohninger and Austrian cooking, click here.
Spätzle are tiny dumplings that you make by passing a thin batter through a colander (or a spätzle maker) into a pot of boiling water. You can serve them simply boiled and drained, topped with melted butter and poppy seeds, or fried with onions and cheese as we do here. This is a rich mountain-style skiers' dish that will really keep you going.
"Traditionally, you make spätzle with milk, eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and butter," says Lohninger. "I used quark cheese in place of the milk to give the dish a more interesting texture and flavor." Quark is a fresh white curd cheese from Germany. It is sold in containers at specialty stores and cheese shops. This dish works well as a do-ahead item. You can make the spätzle in the morning, drain them, put them in ice water to chill, then drain again, toss with a little oil and refrigerate them until you're ready to proceed with the recipe for dinner. "Spätzle with cheese is a very flexible and appealing dish," says Lohninger. "If you like, add cubes of leftover ham or corned beef, or substitute other sharp mountain cheeses or even fresh or aged goat cheese. In the cold months when I make this I sometimes add ground hazelnuts, or else I sprinkle in some of the same spices you'd use in gingerbread — ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Just be sure to use a little stock so that whatever else you're adding is thinned to a light, creamy sauce."
