Chef Juliana
Barreado Paranaense
You think the sealed pot is the hard part. It isn't. The hard part is believing dinner can be this good with beef, onions, patience, and no packet pretending to help.
Culinary Explorer
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Spätzle de Colher
Created by
You don't need a pasta machine or courage. A soft egg batter, a colander, and boiling water make tender little noodles that can resolver o jantar tonight.
Side Dishes
Brazilian
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
15 min
Active Time
15 min cook•30 min total
Yield4 servings
You look at little homemade noodles and hear that quiet voice: isso não é pra mim. I know that voice. Mine once told me an onion was too much responsibility, so imagine the nonsense it said about dough. Anota aí: cozinhar não é dom, é um aprendizado.
This isn't the everyday rice of the pê-efe, and I'm not going to pretend a German noodle is from my grandmother's São Paulo counter. But Brazil is made of many home tables, including the southern ones shaped by German immigration, and a gente can learn from them without turning dinner into a costume. Here, the spätzle sits where rice might sit: beside feijão, a browned piece of chicken or egg, and something green.
The method is kinder than it looks. You mix flour, eggs, milk, salt, and a little nutmeg until the batter falls slowly from the spoon. You push it through a colander into boiling salted water, and the little noodles float when they're cooked. Then you dourar them in butter with onion because pale boiled noodles are honest, but browned noodles are dinner.
No packet. No powdered shortcut pretending to be flavor. Just flour, egg, water, heat, and a method you can repeat.
Spätzle comes from the German-speaking region of Swabia, with written references to the noodle appearing by the eighteenth century, though the technique is older home cooking. In Brazil, it is most associated with communities in the South, especially places shaped by German immigration from the nineteenth century onward. The tool changes from kitchen to kitchen, board and knife, press, grater, or colander, but the idea stays plain: soft egg batter dropped into boiling water.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 cups
salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus 1 tablespoon for the cooking water
freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon
eggs
Quantity
3 large
milk
Quantity
3/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons more if needed
butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
parsley (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flour | 2 cups |
| salt | 1 teaspoon, plus 1 tablespoon for the cooking water |
| freshly grated nutmeg (optional) | 1/8 teaspoon |
| eggs | 3 large |
| milk | 3/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons more if needed |
| butter | 2 tablespoons |
| onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| parsley (optional)chopped | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide 4-liter pot
- •Large-hole colander or spätzle press
- •Slotted spoon
- •Wide skillet
Instructions
- 1
Mix the batter
Put the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and nutmeg in a bowl. Beat the eggs with the milk, pour them in, and stir with a spoon until you have a thick, sticky batter that falls slowly in ribbons. If it sits like cement, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time. The batter has to be soft enough to pass through the colander, but thick enough to hold little shapes in the water.
- 2
Rest the batter
Let the batter rest for 10 minutes while the water heats. It will relax and look a little smoother. This pause lets the flour hydrate, which means the noodles cook tender instead of tasting floury in the middle.
- 3
Boil the water
Bring a wide pot of water to a lively boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. Set a colander with large holes over the pot, or hold it just above the water. Salted water seasons the noodles from inside as they cook; if you save all the salt for the end, the center stays bland.
- 4
Push and cook
Spoon one third of the batter into the colander and push it through with the back of a spoon. Let the little drops fall into the boiling water and cook until they float, about 1 minute. Floating tells you the batter has set and cooked through. Work in batches so the pot stays lively and the noodles don't glue themselves into one sad lump.
A colander is the Tuesday shortcut. A proper spätzle press makes neater noodles, yes, but dinner does not collapse because yours look irregular. Irregular is fine. Raw in the middle is not. - 5
Drain them well
Lift the cooked noodles out with a slotted spoon and put them in a sieve. Shake off the water. Wet noodles don't dourar properly in the pan; they bring water with them, drop the heat, and you end up warming them instead of browning them.
- 6
Brown with onion
Melt the butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and golden at the edges, about 5 minutes, then add the drained spätzle in a loose layer. Let them sit for a minute before stirring, then turn them until some edges are lightly browned. Color means flavor. Crowd the pan and they'll just soften in their own moisture.
- 7
Finish and serve
Taste for salt, scatter parsley if using, and serve right away. The noodles should be tender, a little chewy, and glossy with butter, with browned edges here and there. Put them beside feijão, couve refogada, and a simple egg or chicken, and you've got a pê-efe that learned a new accent.
Chef Tips
- •Use a colander with large round holes. Tiny mesh makes paste, not noodles, and then everyone gets irritated before dinner.
- •Don't rinse the cooked spätzle unless you're making them ahead. A little surface starch helps the butter cling. Rinsing washes that away.
- •The honest shortcut is the colander. The dishonest shortcut is a packet with powdered sauce. Butter, onion, and a hot pan do more for dinner than any envelope can.
- •If serving with feijão, keep the beans creamy and not too watery. Spätzle loves caldo, but it doesn't want to drown.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook the spätzle up to 2 days ahead, toss with 1 teaspoon oil, cool, and refrigerate covered. Brown in butter and onion right before serving.
- •Cooked spätzle freezes for up to 1 month. Spread on a tray first, then bag it, so the noodles don't freeze into one block.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 200g)
Calories
360 calories
Total Fat
12 g
Saturated Fat
6 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
160 mg
Sodium
950 mg
Total Carbohydrates
50 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
13 g
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