Appetites: Spaetzle, dressed up or down, can make an easy meal

Amy Thielen, author of The New Midwestern Table, grew up with a mother who made butter German-style noodles (or spaetzle) at least once a week. Thielen says her mother tricked the family into thinking they were common everyday fare, but the truth is, usually they're trucked out for the holidays.

Thielen says they're worth bringing back to the weekdays. Most of the doughs are easier to make than pancakes, she says, with ratios made for memorizing.

For spaetzle, use this recipe: 1 egg, 1/3 cup water or milk, 1 cup flour. Whisk the egg and the liquid together and half the flour to make a slurry, then switch to a wooden spoon, add the remaining flour, and beat until the strands of batter cling to the bowl. "I always think that they're holding on to the sides for dear life," says Thielen. Season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg.

Now push the dough through a spaetzle maker into salted boiling water. A spaetzle maker looks like a little box riding on a short grater, but you don't need one to make spaetzle. The old-fashioned way is to spread the dough thinly on a cutting board and scrape off portions of dough with a butter knife into the water. But, you don't even need to do that. When Thielen was a kid, she remembers scooping dough into the water with a spoon, making clumpy, irregular dumplings — it can be that that simple.

Any way you make them, finishing is the same: cook for one minute after they float, then drain them and fry them in butter until lightly browned.

There are recipe variations, and Thielen's favorite is a potato dough that's rolled into skinny fingers and fried in butter. Austrians call it schupfnudeln. They can be savory and go well with roasts.

Thielen also loves the sweet version, called "nuss nudeln," or noodles with nuts. They're fried in brown butter and ground almonds or hazelnuts and doused in powdered sugar. "We're talking last-meal good," says Thielen.

Recpie: Nuss Nudeln, or Sweet Almond Spaetzle

by Amy Thielen

3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1⁄2 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for cooking the spaetzle
1⁄4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, plus more for serving
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons (3⁄4 stick) salted butter
3/4 cup ground toasted almonds
approximately 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar for serving

Serves 6

Fill a large stockpot two-thirds full of water, salt it liberally, and start bringing it to a boil over high heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and egg yolk. Add 1⁄2 cup water, the milk, 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper, and the nutmeg. Whisk until smooth.

Set a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl. Sift in 1 cup of the flour and whisk to combine. Sift in another 1⁄2 cup and whisk until the batter is smooth.

Switch to a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula, and sift in the remaining 11⁄2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, beating until the batter billows and forms elastic strands. You'll know it's right when after a good stir it huffs and expires and flops down, almost as if it were breathing. (You can make the batter a couple of hours ahead of time, covered and left at room temperature.)

Make the brown butter (and you can do this ahead of time as well): Heat a very wide bottomed pan over medium-high heat, add the butter, and cook until the froth on top deepens to an acorn-brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the almonds. Stir to combine and set aside.

Working quickly, pass the batter through a spaetzle maker or colander into the boiling water. Swish the water with a fork to break up any clumps. Bring the water back to a boil and cook the spaetzle for exactly 1 more minute. Drain the spaetzle well.

Set the pan of brown butter and almonds over medium-high heat and add the drained spaetzle, stirring to coat. Fry, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until the bottoms of the spaetzle turn light brown, about 8 minutes. Dust with a bit more grated nutmeg. Pour the confectioner's sugar into a fine wire sieve and shake a heavy snowfall of sugar over the spaetzle. Turn the spaetzle out into serving dishes, and dust once more with sugar before serving.

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