Swabian
Spätzle, Maultaschen, sour lentils — Baden-Württemberg's pasta-and-onion kitchen.
Spätzle
A type of soft egg noodle or dumpling served as a side dish
View page →Swabian cuisine — from Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm, and the Black Forest — is Germany's pasta tradition. Where Bavarian cuisine is sausage-and-beer, Swabian cuisine is Spätzle (the egg-rich short noodle that's served alongside almost every Swabian main dish), Maultaschen (Germany's only large stuffed pasta), and the dense Schwäbische Rostbraten + Röstzwiebeln combination. The Swabian dialect for food is so distinctive that you can identify a Swabian by their pronunciation of 'Spätzle' (with a long 'zhuh' sound).
Swabian dishes have a defining tendency toward sour-tangy flavors: Saure Kutteln (sour tripe), Linsen mit Spätzle und Saiten (sour lentils with sausages), Wurstsalat (vinaigrette-dressed sausage salad). The acidity is the Swabian palate marker. Black Forest specialties (Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte cherry cake, Schwarzwälder Schinken cured ham) add forest-fruit and smoke to the regional kitchen. The 'Flädle' egg-crepe is universally added to broth (Flädlesuppe) as the canonical Swabian first course.
Start Here
Press fresh dough through a Spätzle press directly into boiling water — the irregular shapes are the signature.
Why start here · Spätzle is Swabian DNA in noodle form — the side dish for almost every Swabian main meal.
Maultaschen literally means 'mouth pockets' — the Swabian solution for hiding meat during Lent.
Why start here · Maultaschen is Germany's only major stuffed pasta tradition — the Swabian answer to ravioli.
Use green or brown lentils (NEVER red split) — green lentils hold their shape during the long simmer.
Why start here · Linsen mit Spätzle is the most distinctively Swabian dish — the phrase itself means 'Swabian cuisine.'
The Pantry
See all 76 ingredients›
Dairy & Fats
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
Kindred Kitchens
Cuisines built on the same signature ingredients
Other regions
Siblings within German — each its own tradition.
