Spätzle are a food staple in southern Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland. Since there’s not much to them, the recipes don’t vary widely as with other dishes. How they’re used on the other hand is a different story.

Generally speaking, Spätzle are tiny dumplings made from flour, eggs, water and salt. Does that base-recipe ring a bell? Yes, sounds a lot like egg-pasta and it is. What differentiates Spätzle from other pasta is the texture – which is firm but a bit – dare I say squishy?

Technically the recipe depicted produces Knöpfle and not Spätzle, although this variety is also referred to as Spätzle on restaurant menus. The difference is simply shape: Knöpfle – which means “small buttons” – are round-ish, where traditional Spätzle are made by shaving them off a wooden board resulting in a more elongated shape. They taste the same and since nobody makes them manually by shaving that globby mass of dough off a wooden board anymore, everyone uses the “Spätzlehobel” to mass-produce Knöpfle in no time and call them Spätzle. Did that make any sense? I hope so.

Use Spätzle as a side for pretty much any meaty, hearty dish that has a lot of sauce. In my book Spätzle without some kind of gravy are not Spätzle, except when you bury them in a ton of molten cheesey goodness. That however is a recipe for a different episode.

Let’s head over to the kitchen and go make some. If you don’t have the metal implement called “Spätzlehobel”, all you need is a colander with about 1/4 inch holes and a spatula or just use a ziptop bag, punch a bunch of holes into it using your trusty office hole punch and use that in conjunction with a spatula. Of course you’re welcome to shave them off a wooden board with the back of a large knife but that’s really tedious.