Kase Nudel

These dumplings orginate from my Mother’s home town of Klagenfurt in Southern Austria. They are simple to make, very healthy; yet deceptively delicious.

Serves 2-4 people

Each dumpling consists of a mixture of 250g quark, 100g cooked potatoes, mint, chervil, seasoning with melted butter and chives to serve.

The pasta recipe is made up of: 2 eggs, one tablespoon of oil, 200g plain flour, a teaspoon of salt, 4-6 tablespoons of water. 

- Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre. With a fork slowly bring together the two eggs and add the tablespoon of olive oil and 4-6 tablespoons of water. Now use your hands and knead until you have produced an elastic dough. I tend to use either more flour if the mixture is too wet or I use more water if the mixture is too dry. Wrap up in cling film or foil and leave to rest in the fridge.

- Now leave the cooked potatoes to cool and mash, mix with the 250g quark, chevil, mint and season – this will make up the Kase Nudel filling.

- Take the dough out from the fridge and cut it into small sections. The art to good pasta/dumplings is to make them as thin as possible. This isn’t completely true with Kase Nudel although I personally like the pasta to be rolled out as thinly as possible anyway. I won’t go into all the ins and outs of pasta making here as everyone has their different methods. If you want to learn more I used Jamie Oliver’s second book; he demonstrates it with photographs.

- Once you have a sheet of thinly rolled out pasta, put a spoonful of filling in the centre and fold over. As you can see from the photographs I have made them into semi circles.

Tip 1: I have recently started to use biscuit moulds to give my dumplings a pretty edge.

Tip 2: I tend to dap a bit of water on my finger and smooth it along the base of the pasta before folding over – this helps the pasta seal together better. Well I haven’t had one collapse on me yet!!

- Bring a big pan of water (with a sprinkling of salt in it) to the boil and add the dumplings. Leave them to cook for 3-6 minutes then serve on plates with melted butter and a sprinkling of chives over the top.

Delicious!

Claire

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