Apfelspätzle

Apfelspätzle sit in the Swabian corner of the table, where egg pasta is not only for lentils and roast sauce. This is autumn cooking, when the apple cellar is full and supper can be sweet without becoming a pudding. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders: the north is more likely to put sweet grain dishes after the meal, while Swabia and the Allgäu will set sweet noodles down as the meal, especially on a meatless Friday.

I make the Spätzle fresh because this dish has nowhere to hide. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not from a dry packet either. The dough has to be beaten until it stretches and blisters, because that beating develops just enough gluten to give the noodles their chew; skip it and you get soft scraps that drink butter and collapse.

The apples need the same discipline. Brown the butter first, then cook the apples hot and briefly so their edges caramelise while the pieces still hold. If you crowd the pan, they stew. If you keep them too long, you have applesauce with noodles in it, and nobody asked for that.

Use a tart apple, a wide pan, and water that trembles instead of raging. Fresh Spätzle cook fast, apples cook faster, and the whole thing comes together when the butter smells nutty and the noodles are glossy. Schön ist, was schmeckt.