Spätzle agli Spinaci

Spätzle is Swabian in origin and spread across the German-speaking Alps and beyond — Tyrol, Switzerland, Alsace and Trentino-Alto Adige all share it. The name is a Swabian diminutive of Spatz, «sparrow», the little noodles supposedly resembling small birds. South Tyrol took the dish into its own kitchen, where it is also called spatzln, and the spinach version dressed with cream and speck became one of its signature first courses. The EU protection that exists belongs to «Schwäbische Spätzle», the Swabian noodle, not to any South Tyrolean version; the Alto Adige dish is a regional preparation rather than a designated product.

The noodles are soft and tender with a slight chew, irregular in shape with little nubs and tails that catch the sauce. The spinach keeps them mild and grassy rather than strongly flavoured, and the green colour is part of the appeal. In the classic dress, a silky cream sauce coats them, the speck runs through in salty, smoky strips, and chives and a little grated cheese sharpen and freshen the richness. The dish should be loose and saucy, the noodles slippery and yielding; spätzle boiled too long go mushy, and a sauce left to over-reduce turns it stodgy.

Spätzle dough is a soft, sticky batter, not a kneadable dough — it is beaten, not kneaded, so that the egg and flour form just enough structure to hold together while staying loose enough to scrape. Beating develops some gluten and incorporates air, which makes the noodles light. The batter is forced through a spätzle press or scraped from a board into boiling water; the heat sets the egg proteins and gelatinises the starch almost instantly, firming each noodle so it floats to the surface when done. Blanching spinach and pureeing it into the batter colours and flavours it while adding little extra liquid. The finished noodles are best tossed straight into a warm sauce, where their starchy surface helps the cream cling.