Kässpätzle (Käsespätzle)

Kässpätzle sits in the Swabian and Allgäu kitchen where a pot of flour, eggs, onions, and mountain cheese becomes supper without ceremony. It is weeknight food when you know what you're doing, Sunday food when the bowl comes to the table with enough fried onions on top. The Allgäu wants sharp Bergkäse and calls it Kässpätzle; across the Ländle you meet Käsknöpfle, shorter and button-shaped. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here the south knows the dish best.

The argument is mostly shape and cheese. Swabia scrapes long Spätzle from a board or pushes them through a press; the Allgäu often wants them sturdy enough to hold a serious cheese; Vorarlberg makes smaller Knöpfle and is not shy with the onions. I won't make a border guard out of it. Use a good mature mountain cheese, a little Emmentaler for melt if you like, and no packet sauce. Nicht aus dem Glas. There is no sauce here except cheese, butter, onion, and a spoon of starchy cooking water doing their job.

The technique that decides the dish is timing. The cooked Spätzle must go from the pot into the warm cheese layers while they are still hot and carrying a little cooking water, because that starch and heat melt the cheese into the noodles instead of leaving it in greasy strings. Drain them bone dry and let them sit, and you've built yourself a lump. Keep the bowl warm, layer fast, and let the onions arrive crisp at the end. Erst verstehen, dann kochen.