Käsespätzle (Spaetzle with Cheese)

Recipes will be posted on Mondays during the Real German cuisine challenge! Thanks for following!

Another week of the Real German Cuisine challenge on Amiexpat.com!
This week’s recipe was Käsespätzle, or Spaetzle with Cheese.

I have made spaetzle before and actually own a spaetzle maker! I was familar with that portion of the recipe, but have only made it tossed with butter, never with cheese. We did have this dish in Germany though - it was a "safe" dish that we knew the kids would eat (without the onions)!

As I had read, this particular recipe made a very dry dough for the spaetzle. My spaetzle maker is one where you slide the dough through holes in a board (think of a flat colander), so I had to add more water (about another 1/2 c.) to be able to force the dough through the holes into the water. They turned out fine once I did this!

One major thing to keep in mind - the quality of the swiss cheese is very important. Unfortunately, I didn't think about this at the time and bought the store brand preshredded Swiss to save time... (I know... I know...!!). You get what you pay for - the low quality cheese didn't really add any flavor to the dish. So......... it kind of was a let down since it is a spaetzle WITH cheese dish! All you could taste was the spaetzle (which was good and light) and the onions sprinkled on top.

Thank God for the onions - they made the flavor for the dish, and I had even reduced the amount of butter to 1 1/2 T. to cook them in to save some calories.

Would I make this again? Sure - but I would be sure to add a swiss cheese of better quality - and possibly use more of an aged swiss to add more flavor. Either way - I still love spaetzle and loved the opportunity to make it another way than I normally do!