Dumplings : Gnocchi, Spaetzle and Knoepfle

[favorit]

Being italian i like pasta, of course. But I really go crazy for filled pasta (ravioli, tortellini) and "gnocchi"
Literally gnocchi means lumps. They are dumplings made with a dough of (old) potatoes, flour and eggs, sometimes even boiled spinach or cheese or pumpkin. They are served with tomato sauce or pesto or melted gorgonzola cheese and crushed walnuts.

So I know well even the Tyrolean made Spaetzle and Knefflene (Knoepfli), typical of Walser communities in the Alps.
Both of them are served as a first course, unlike Swabian spaetzle that come along with a meat dish.

I googled in search of some Swabian spaetzle recipes and,
to my surprise, I discovered that even the North Dakotan German community has its own spaetzle recipes (but haven't found them).

So any spaetzle recipe - German, Dakotan, Italian, Austrian, Swiss - is welcome.

T.I.A.

 

[panthera]

basic kaessspaaetzle recipe

I think this is easy to follow.

 

[alanlendaro]

I made this one to go along with a roast pork cooked on a be

They were pretty easy to do and came out really well. I used a potato ricer to make them.

I got the recepie off the food network web site - its from Tyler Florence. Link below.

Spaetzle

Get Spaetzle Recipe from Food Network

www.foodnetwork.com

 

[favorit]

gnocchi al gorgonzola and walnuts

me bad ! forgot about googling on YT ... thanks Keven !
I'll try the cheese spaetzli with pear and onion fondue

we say :
"al condadino non far sapere
quanto è buono
il formaggio con le pere"

[never let the farmer know how nice is cheese with pears"

Here some italian folks in Berlin explain how to make gnocchi al gorgonzola. Maybe they never heard about HACCP codex ...

 

[appnut]

I'm sorry, but I don't find all that jumping around and wiggling of the camera and such entertaining at all. I find it very distracting to say the least. Sio much for trying to lear how to make something by observation!! Sheesh!!

 

[panthera]

Bob,

it's just a funny video, chillax, as they say in Berlin.

Here's the traditional gnocchi recipe, see the link.

The Gorgonzola sauce made by trimming the rind off the Gorgonzola. Melt over the lowest flame possible iwth enough milk to produce a creamy, pourable texture. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, you can roast them in some butter before, if you like.

I do use eggs in my gnocchi, it ain't the end of the world.

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/how-to-make-gnocchi-like-an-italian-grandmother-recipe.html

 

[appnut]

Kevin, thank you very much!! Much better.

 

[panthera]

my pleasure, Bob

I like Berlin, people there try very hard to be 'childlike'. Sometimes, they're just childish. But much nicer than the old Prussian stereotype.

You can do gnocchi or spaetzle with lots of fresh parsley, too.

 

[favorit]

"I do use eggs in my gnocchi, it ain't the end of t

Keven do agree, expecially if potatoes aren't old enough. New potatoes are less starchy and cause gnocchi self-destruction while boiling. Usually those kinds not suitable to be fried (cause adsorbe too much oil) are the best to be mashed for gnocchi or purée.

Just :

- cook whole potatoes -not halves- to maintain all their starch content. Even pressure cooker helps (and saves a lot of time)

- never reuse potato boiling water, it causes "groundy" flavours in gnocchi

- never mash potato with a Minipimer or other electric devices. Overmashing produces fine glue .... so use the good old ricer

- to make each gnocco : roll each lump of dough over the back of a cheese grater. It's easier and faster than the fork thing and this different pattern on the gnocco retains more sauce

- boil gnocchi suddenly, otherwise they discolour into a lead grey and taste dreadful. Then "dress" them with the sauce (or with melted butter with a sage leaf 9

- boil them very slowly and never bobload the pot ;-)

This could be blasphemous.. but IMHO they have a better taste after sitting for some hours then reheated in the radarrange (this case RR is better than the oven, as it doesn't overdry)

 

[favorit]

What about Munich ?

my guess is the Muenchner enjoy life much better than the "always-in-a-hurry" Milanesi. Even outside of Oktoberfest time. Both Munich and Milan are 1 million people towns. Munich downtown is "warm", people sit at cafè dehors and enjoy their town. Milan downtown is a 2 speed thing : the normal speed tourists - the fast speed, everruning milanesi (that dissolve, after friday noon, and spread on highways over speed limits as they hate their own town)
Muenchner look more similar to Bolognesi (Gabriele,do you agree?)

 

[panthera]

Oh, I don't know,

I like Milano, it's just a very different city to Munich. The pace of life is faster (like Manhattan compared to Nashville) and the people are far more fashionable.

Munich is just a very nice place to live. Our restaurants aren't as good as in Italy, but it's true - the good weather and the friendly atmosphere just plain seduces you into walking down the street hand in hand with your love, sitting in a Biergarten drinking a beer or three, having coffee in front of a Café...

Comparing the two is like comparing a wonderful apple and a truly great pear...

Speaking of which, the Tuscan cuisine is one of the world's greatest. How about some more recipes?

 

[favorit]

Ribollita

Winter is close to come ... soups at suppertime are welcome
It's a soup that needs sitting for a whole day after it has been cooked, then it will be reheated/reboiled the next day : here comes its name (ribollita means reboiled)
A terracotta pot is mandatory

For those who understand italian enjoy the true "tuscan" italian pages of this website .... spelling is maybe worse than in english pages

http://www.ricettetoscane.it/sito-ing/tradit-recipes/ribollita-ing.html

 

[favorit]

Keven, aus Veltlin ..... Pizzoccheri !!!

This time we are in Valtellina, northern Italy.
Another recipe one has better enjoy duning cold season.. and not suitable 4 weight-watchers . It is common also in the italian speaking part of the Grisons swiss region.

Pizzoccheri are a kind of pasta made with buckwheat (typical alpine cereal) flour. They look like dark short tagliatelle and are boiled with small potato dices and savoy stripes.
Once drained they go into a large baking pan with tons of cheese and butter. After a short trip through the oven they are really drowning into that cheesy heaven, but they still need some grated parmesan raining over them

Please erase / format c:/ cancel the word "cabbage" : pizzoccheri require true savoy (verza)

"...serve immediately" : uhmmm... IMHO the more they rest with cheese, the more they get closer to heaven

Pizzoccheri Valtellinesi Recipe

About one and half year ago’ my husband and I went to visit a friend in northern Italy, precisely in the lake Como area. She took us out to dinner and we tasted for the first time this dish. Since then my husband has been asking me repeatedly to make “the pasta that we ate at Como’s lake”...

www.grouprecipes.com

 

[maytagbear]

Spaetzel,

with butter, garlic, salt, pepper.

and a big spoon.

Heaven on Earth!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[favorit]

SCIATT, from the same valley

These little fritters look so ugly as toads to be named "sciatt".
"Sciatt" (read as it were "shutt") means "toad(s)" in western lombard languages.
They always come served on a small stripes chicory bed. For our sake the way they look has nothing to do with their taste

http://www.molinofilippini.com/_eng/ricette/Ricetta.cfm?Id_Ricetta=8&TipoRicetta=1

 

[favorit]

Polenta

Once it was the poor people meal. As many peasant foods, today is often served in restaurants as regional typical food.
Somewhere it is served with fish (typically cooked desalted cod) , elsewhere with meat or cheese, mushrooms

Common place wants it as typical from northern italy, indeed - with big wonder - i discovered it isn't true. I have eaten polenta even in the Centre and in the South and was told it is typical there too. So the common point is : this is mostly a mountain food.

In my region polenta must be thick. You can be able to cut it with a knife. In Aosta valley it looks like glue and has to be eaten with a spoon ( yuck...)

Fried polenta stripes are a nice appetizer. They can be either sweetened or salted.

Polenta must be cooked in copper pots. Please note cornmeal is one of the few foods that don't react with poisonous copper oxides. For other uses copper cookware has to be tin coveded inside

Polenta - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org