Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Käsespätzle
Fresh egg noodles scraped into boiling water, layered with alpine cheese and buried in crispy onions.
German (Swabian) · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 25 min
~1038 cal · 57g protein · 68g carbs · 60g fat · 3g fiber · 4g sugars · 36g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kasespatzle is the Swabian and Allgau answer to macaroni cheese, older and entirely unapologetic about richness. Spatzle themselves are little irregular egg noodles, and Swabians take real pride in them: a proper cook scrapes the soft batter by hand off a wet board straight into boiling water, and grandmothers claim they can judge the batter by the sound it makes as it falls.
The cheese version layers the fresh noodles with a strong mountain cheese, usually a well-aged Bergkase or Emmental, until it turns molten and stringy, then crowns the whole dish with a heap of onions fried slow and dark. It is the food of alpine dairy country, filling enough for people who spent the day on a mountainside.
It is served straight from the pan while the cheese still pulls into threads, often with nothing more than a sharp green salad to cut the richness. In its home region it is everyday food and celebration food at once, the dish that says you are being properly looked after.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup sparkling water
a good scrape nutmeg, freshly grated
2.5 cups Emmental or Bergkäse, grated
2 yellow onions, sliced
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chives, snipped
Instructions
1
Fry the onions slowly in the butter until deep gold and starting to crisp, 15 minutes.
2
Beat flour, eggs (or aquafaba mix), sparkling water, nutmeg, and salt into a thick, elastic batter that tears slowly off a spoon.
3
Scrape ribbons of batter off a board (or press through a spätzle press or colander) into boiling salted water. Lift them out as they float.
4
Layer hot spätzle and cheese in a warm pan, repeating so the cheese melts in seams through the noodles.
5
Bury under the onions and chives. Serve immediately, ideally after a long hike.
Swabian mountain-hut cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Swabia. Maultaschen have a nickname that carries a story: Herrgottsbscheisserle, little God-cheaters, from a legend told at Maulbronn monastery about a lay brother hiding meat inside pasta dough during Lent so it could not be seen. It is a legend rather than a documented origin, but it explains why the dish is traditionally eaten on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
🗺️
Germany. Beyond beer halls, Germany is a land of serious regional home cooking, Swabian spätzle, Bavarian roasts, northern fish, and an unmatched bread and sausage culture. Hearty, seasonal, and built for cold winters, it prizes pork, potatoes, cabbage, and cured meats.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Germany
Schnitzel (Schweineschnitzel)The German pork schnitzel: a thin cutlet pounded flat, breaded in a loose golden crust, and fried until crisp, served with a wedge of lemon.
RinderrouladenThin beef rolled around mustard, bacon, onion, and pickle, braised into a deep gravy, Sunday dinner across Germany.
German Breakfast (Brötchen)Fresh crusty rolls with butter, jam, cold cuts, cheese, and a soft-boiled egg, the German spread.
Browse all Germany recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a Germany meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Käsespätzle?
Fresh egg noodles scraped into boiling water, layered with alpine cheese and buried in crispy onions.
Where does Käsespätzle come from?
Käsespätzle is a German (Swabian) dish from Swabia, Germany.
Can Käsespätzle be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Käsespätzle recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Käsespätzle safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Käsespätzle take to make?
About 50 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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