Schupfnudeln (Bubespitzle)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Potato ricer
• •Wide pot for poaching
• •Large heavy frying pan
• •Slotted spoon
• •Wide tray for cooling and holding noodles

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the potatoes

   Boil the potatoes in their skins until a knife slides through cleanly, 25 to 35 minutes depending on size. Keep the skins on because they stop the flesh drinking up the cooking water; wet potato makes wet dough, and wet dough makes you add flour until the noodle loses its potato taste.

   Use floury potatoes, not waxy ones. A waxy potato holds together in salad, which is exactly why it fights you here.
2. 2

   Rice and cool

   Drain the potatoes, let them sit a minute so the surface dries, then peel them while hot and press them through a ricer onto a wide tray. Hot potato rices dry and light; cold potato turns pasty under pressure. Spread the riced potato out and leave it until completely cool, at least 30 minutes, because warm potato cooks the yolk and weeps starch into glue.

3. 3

   Make the dough

   Sprinkle over the flour, potato starch, salt, and nutmeg, add the egg yolk, and bring it together with your hands just until it holds. Don't knead it like bread. You want a soft potato dough, not a worked flour dough, so stop as soon as no dry pockets remain.

4. 4

   Roll the noodles

   Dust the board lightly and divide the dough into four pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 2cm thick, cut it into short lengths, then roll each one under your palm into a tapered finger noodle, thicker in the middle and pointed at both ends. The tapered ends matter because they crisp first in the pan while the middle stays tender.

5. 5

   Poach gently

   Bring a wide pot of salted water to a tremble, not a boil. Slide in the Schupfnudeln in batches and cook until they rise, then give them one more minute so the starch sets through the centre. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto an oiled tray; piling them wet in a bowl makes them stick before they ever see the frying pan.

   Cook one test noodle first. If it frays badly, work a spoonful more flour into the remaining dough; if it is tough, leave the rest alone and handle it more lightly.
6. 6

   Cook the kraut

   Set a large frying pan over medium heat and render the bacon until the fat runs and the edges colour. Add the onion and cook until soft, because raw onion stays sharp against the sauerkraut. Stir in the sauerkraut, bay, juniper, and wine, apple juice, or water, then simmer until the liquid is mostly gone and the kraut tastes rounded, 12 to 15 minutes. Nicht aus dem Glas, if the kraut is going in the pan, give it seasoning and time.

7. 7

   Fry to gold

   Push the kraut to one side or lift it out if your pan is crowded. Add the butter or lard and the oil, then fry the Schupfnudeln in a single layer until golden on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Leave them alone while they brown; move them too early and the crust stays on the pan instead of on the noodle.

8. 8

   Finish together

   Fold the kraut back through the browned Schupfnudeln and grind over black pepper. Taste before salting because bacon and sauerkraut already brought salt to the pan. Finish with chives if you have them, then serve straight away while the edges are crisp and the middle is still soft. Schön ist, was schmeckt.

Chef Tips

• •Boil the potatoes the day before if you like, but rice them hot first and cool the riced potato uncovered. Whole cold potatoes don't rice cleanly, and you pay for that with heavy dough.
• •Drain sauerkraut but don't rinse it unless it is brutally sour. The acid is part of the dish; rinse it all away and you've made warm cabbage with an apology attached.
• •Use lard if you keep it. Butter gives flavour, oil protects it from scorching, and lard gives the clean old pan-fried taste. Weggeworfen wird nichts, bacon fat in the pan is not a problem to solve.
• •For a meatless plate, leave out the bacon and fry the onion slowly in butter or oil until sweet before the kraut goes in. Don't pretend it is the same dish. Cook the version that stands on its own.

Advance Preparation

• •The potatoes can be cooked, riced, and cooled up to 24 hours ahead; keep them loosely covered in the refrigerator so they stay dry.
• •The shaped Schupfnudeln can be poached earlier the same day, tossed lightly with oil, and chilled on a tray. Fry them from cold, giving them another minute in the pan to heat through.
• •Cooked sauerkraut keeps well for 2 days. Rewarm it in the pan before adding the fried noodles, because cold kraut drops the pan temperature and steals the crust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 410g)