Nussnudeln

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Potato ricer or fine-mesh sieve
• •Large pot for boiling
• •Wide pan or skillet (28cm)
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook and rice the potatoes

   Boil the potatoes whole in their skins in salted water until a knife slides through without any resistance, about twenty-five minutes depending on size. Drain them and peel while they're still hot. Use a tea towel to hold them if you need to. Press the peeled potatoes through a ricer or a fine sieve immediately onto a clean, floured work surface. Spread them out and let them cool until you can comfortably touch the pile, about ten minutes. Do not skip the ricer. A fork or a masher leaves lumps, and lumps in this dough mean lumps in your noodles.

   Use floury potatoes, not waxy ones. In Austria we call them Mehlig kochend. They fall apart easily and rice into a dry, fluffy pile. Waxy potatoes hold too much water and your dough will be sticky and impossible to roll.
2. 2

   Make the dough

   Add the flour, egg, melted butter, and a pinch of salt to the riced potatoes. Work everything together quickly with your hands into a smooth dough. This should take two minutes at most. You're not making bread. You're not developing gluten. You're just bringing it together until it holds and feels soft, a little tacky, and pliable. If you knead too long, the dough turns gluey and the noodles come out heavy instead of tender. Gretel always said: the less you touch potato dough, the more it rewards you.

   If the dough sticks badly to your hands, dust with a little more griffiges Mehl. But add it a tablespoon at a time. Too much flour makes the noodles tough and dense. You want barely enough to make the dough workable.
3. 3

   Shape the noodles

   Dust your work surface with flour. Pull off a piece of dough about the size of a small plum and roll it gently under your palms into a finger-thick rope, about two centimeters wide and eight to ten centimeters long. Taper the ends slightly. Set each finished noodle on a floured tray. Repeat until you've used all the dough. You should get roughly twenty to twenty-four noodles. They don't need to be identical. A little variation is honest. What matters is that they're even enough in thickness to cook at the same rate.

4. 4

   Boil the noodles

   Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a gentle boil. Lower the heat until the surface barely moves. Drop the noodles in, working in two batches if your pot isn't wide enough to hold them in a single layer. They sink to the bottom. Leave them alone. After three to four minutes they'll float to the surface. Let them bob there for another minute, then lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on a clean tea towel. Don't let the water reach a rolling boil or the noodles will break apart. A gentle simmer is all they need.

   Test one noodle from the first batch by cutting it in half. The inside should be uniform and soft all the way through, no raw doughy center. If it needs more time, give the rest another thirty seconds after they float.
5. 5

   Toast the walnuts

   While the noodles cook, grind the walnuts in short pulses until you have a mix of fine and slightly coarse pieces. You don't want walnut flour. You want texture, something that catches on the noodles and gives each bite a little crunch. Melt the 80g of butter in a wide pan over medium heat. When it foams and the foam begins to subside, the milk solids are browning. You'll smell something warm and nutty. That's Nussbutter, and it changes the whole dish. Add the ground walnuts, sugar, Vanillezucker, and cinnamon. Stir for about a minute until the sugar dissolves into the butter and the walnuts toast just slightly darker.

6. 6

   Toss and serve

   Add the drained noodles to the walnut butter and toss gently with two spoons, rolling them until every surface is coated. The butter and sugar create a thin, caramelized shell around each noodle while the walnuts cling to the outside. Pile them onto warm plates. Dust with powdered sugar at the table. Eat them while they're hot. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy whole walnuts and grind them yourself. Pre-ground walnuts lose their oils and go stale fast. You'll taste the difference in the first bite. Smell them before you buy: if they smell like paint or nothing at all, they're past their best.
• •Brown the butter properly. This is not melted butter with walnuts thrown in. You take it past the foaming stage until the milk solids at the bottom turn golden and the whole pan smells warm and nutty. That's Nussbutter. It takes an extra ninety seconds of attention and it transforms the dish.
• •If the dough feels too wet after mixing, resist adding flour by the handful. Spread it on the counter and let it sit for five minutes. The flour absorbs the moisture as it rests. Patience first, more flour as a last resort.
• •Serve Nussnudeln as the Austrians do: alone on the plate, as the entire meal. A side salad or a piece of meat next to them misses the point. This is Mehlspeisen. It's the main course.

Advance Preparation

• •The potatoes can be boiled and riced up to two hours ahead. Spread the riced potato on the work surface and cover with a clean tea towel to prevent a skin forming.
• •Shaped noodles can rest on a floured tray for up to thirty minutes before cooking. Don't refrigerate them or the surface turns clammy and they stick together.
• •Nussnudeln are best served immediately. They don't reheat well because the potato dough firms up and the walnut coating loses its gloss.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)