This homemade spaetzle recipe with caramelised onions, bacon and peas makes a hearty meal that's full of flavour. It's perfect as a rustic German alternative to traditional pasta.
Don't you just love it when you haven't thought of something for a while and then you get reminded of it and the opportunity to make it. That's exactly what happened with this month's Daring Cook's challenge. The task was to make homemade pasta without using any motorized machinery. One of the suggestions was spaetzle. Now, why hadn't I ever thought of making spaetzle before?
Discovering Spaetzle in Germany
The last time I ate spaetzle was back the nineties in my year abroad in Germany. It was in a restaurant and as far as I remember it was served with loads of cheese, bacon and leeks.
It was heavy but delicious. The melting cheese and leeks clinging to the spaetzle. A really hearty meal. With that in mind, I wanted to make a dish similar, but if possible, not quite as heavy. Well, I'm not sure if I managed that but I did add some peas and serve it with a huge spinach salad.
A recipe was provided for the spaetzle but it didn't look anything like the spaetzle I remembered. I searched around online and came across Step by Step Cook with very clear pictures and step by step instructions. The only hiccup was that the recipes required you to have a spaetzle press. But looking at it, it was remarkably similar to my new potato ricer. I wondered!
What equipment do you need to make Spaezle?
A little more research revealed that you can use a potato ricer to make spaetzle. As long as you use the attachment with the large holes. And if you don't have a potato ricer, you can even use a colander for homemade spaezle. And if you don't have a colander? Well, I don't suppose you'd be trying to make spaetzle!
Using a potato ricer to make homemade spaezle
When I first pushed the dough through the ricer into the water I was a little worried as a lot of the pieces seemed to stick together. However, as they cooked I prodded them a bit and most of them separated again.
Spaetzle is supposed to be very irregular with thinner and thicker strands and knobbly bits so don't worry if it appears to be going wrong, it will almost certainly turn out ok. I was really pleased with the end result and it was much easier than I would have expected before starting.
Try my other homemade pasta recipes!
If you liked my spaetzle recipe then I hope you'll like these recipes too:
- Pierogi Ruskie (potato, cheese and onion stuffed pierogies)
- Chicken paprikash with homemade tagliatelle
- Gnocchi with chorizo and garlic
- Sweet chocolate ravioli with cherry sauce
Recipe
Spaetzle with peas, bacon and caramelised onions
Ingredients
- 200 g plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs
- 3 onions peeled and sliced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 slices bacon
- Pinch black pepper
- Pinch salt
- 2 tablespoon grated parmesan
- 3 tablespoon peas
- 2 tablespoon breadcrumbs
Instructions
- First make the batter. Put the flour in a bowl and add a pinch of salt and the nutmeg. Break the eggs into the flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
- Add 100ml of water, a little at a time. Stir well so you have a wet dough/thick batter. Don't worry about one or two lumps.
- Put the batter in the fridge to rest.
- Put a little oil in a frying pan and fry the onions over a low heat. Stir every so often to stop them from sticking and burning. Add a little salt. If you want you can also add sugar but it depends how sweet you want the onions to be.
- While the onions are cooking fry the bacon in a separate pan until crispy. When cool, use a pair of scissors to snip it into small pieces.
- Bring a pan of water to the boil. Position a potato ricer or colander above the pan. Add half the dough and squeeze through. When it rises to the top and has been in the pan for about two minutes, lift out with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl of cold water. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Add a little extra oil to the pan with the caramelised onions in. Drain the spatzle and add it to the frying pan with the onion. Add the bacon too and the peas. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring so it is completely heated through. Season with salt if necessary and a little black pepper.
- Just before serving, stir in the grated parmesan. Divide between two plates and sprinkle breadcrumbs on the top.
Notes
Nutrition
Keep in touch
Do let me know if you make this spaeztle or any of my other recipes. I love to get feedback from readers.
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Sues
I haven't made pasta in so long and this is totally motivating me to get in the kitchen and try my hand at making spaetzle! It looks delicious 🙂
Corina
I hope you enjoy it! It is a really tasty dish.
Amanda Wren-Grimwood
I have to say I didn't know what spaetzle was! I need to try this as we all love pasta here.
Corina
I hope you like it! It's not quite as pretty as pasta but it is very easy to make.
Lisa | Tiny Kitchen Capers
This looks so delicious! You had me at bacon! I’m definitely trying this!
Corina
I think the bacon goes so well in this and really makes it into a comfort food meal! I hope you enjoy it.
Patty
Your recipe for spaetzle looks delicious Corina. I'm used to make them too, specially in this season as it is kind of traditional in Switzerland to serve spaetzle with venison. I like to add a mix of herbs to my dough, brings a lot of flavors 🙂
Corina
I love the idea of adding some herbs to the dough - I will do that next time!
Regina
I grew up in Germany and Spätzle often but I think I only made it myself once. These days I only have it on rare occasions when we make it to German restaurant. Now I am inspired to make it myself again
Corina
I found it much easier to make than you'd think. I think as it doesn't have to look uniform and perfect it is achievable at home!
Helene
This dish looks so scrumptious and lovely !!
I want to taste this dish !!
The combination of bacon and cheese sounds more lovely !
Thanks for such a lovely recipe!
Corina
Thanks Helene! I'm so pleased you like it.
Tara
I grew up in Germany and Spätzle is my ultimate comfort food. Love your addition of bacon. Looks delicious!
Corina
Thanks. I think it often had bacon in when I had it in Germany, although maybe I just chose to order it when it had bacon in so that's how I remember it!
Dannii
I have never heard of this, but it looos really comforting and anything with bacon and cheese gets my vote.
Corina
It's one of those ultimate winter comfort food dishes. It can be very heavy but this version is actually a lot lighter than some that I've had!
Hannah Hossack-Lodge
I love spaetzle but haven't made it in a while, I'm craving it now though!
Corina
It's just right for this time of year, isn't it?
AfghanCuisine
I recently had spaetzle for the first time at an international food event, and it was so delicous I think I spent about three tickets just going back for more then the tiny sample portion they were giving. The "noodles" or spaetzle had a subtle sweetness to it, is that how this recipe comes out?
Please let me know as I want to make sure it will have a similar flavor, this looks delicous.
Corina
I wouldn't say the spaetzle itself had a sweetness to it, although the caramelised onions do give a slight sweetness. I think that like pasta or gnocchi, the spaezle take on the flavours of whatever they are served with. What type of sauce did your spaezle have? Maybe that lent them the sweetness.
AfghanCuisine
The spaetzle had something like cornflakes sprinkled on top. The sauce was a cream-based sauce and the more I think about it, I think it was the sauce most likely that had a little sweetness to it I am just not sure if it was the onions or the sauce, I think I just try the recipe and adjust to get the flavor I am looking for, thanks so much I have
been looking for a recipe for a while but was never sure if it was the same dish I had tried but your picture looks exactly the same.
Corina
I think something crispy on top would be really nice. Let me know if you like this if you do make it.
Mary
Bacon, onions and cheese is such an amazing combination, and I imagine it was fantastic with the spaetzle. I'm definitely going to try this, as soon as the weather cools down a bit. I must confess that I used my hand-cranked pasta roller to make those thin, wavy noodles. I'm patient, but not that patient!
I'm so glad you like my challenge! I was nervous waiting for some sort of response to it.
🙂
Libby
OK, we are living parallel lives! The last time I had spaetzle was in the nineties when I was lving in Germany with some neighboring students who made it from scratch....amazing. (If I remember right, the dough was just rolled out into ropes and cut into chunks, no ricer or press needed.)
I have, with a great deal of sadness, had to give up Daring Bakers/Cooks for the time being, but I may have to see if I can manage an egg & dairy free version of spaetzle for my son. Thanks for a great post!