Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Älplermagronen
Alpine macaroni baked with potato, cream, and cheese, topped with fried onions and served with applesauce.
Swiss · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~1406 cal · 56g protein · 116g carbs · 79g fat · 7g fiber · 22g sugars · 50g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
Älplermagronen, herdsman's macaroni, is the one-pot of the Swiss Alps, the food cowherds cooked in a single pot up on the high summer pastures from the few things they carried: pasta, potatoes, cheese, cream, and onions. It is Swiss mountain food at its purest.
Macaroni and cubed potato are cooked together, then bound with cream and plenty of melted Alpine cheese. Crisp fried onions go on top, and, in a combination that surprises outsiders and delights the Swiss, it is served with a bowl of sweet applesauce on the side to cut the richness.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally egg-, 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
3 cups macaroni
2 potatoes, cubed
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups grated Alpine cheese (Gruyère or similar)
2 onions, sliced
3 tbsp butter
1 cup applesauce, to serve
4 cups whole milk (to cook the pasta and potatoes in)
2 cups vegetable or chicken
a scrape and to taste grated nutmeg and black pepper
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Fry the sliced onions slowly in the butter until deep golden and crisp; set aside.
2
Bring the milk and stock to a boil, add the potato cubes and then the macaroni, and simmer uncovered, stirring often, until both are tender and the liquid has thickened. Do not drain it.
✎ Chef’s note
This is the whole trick: the pasta and potatoes cook *in* the milk rather than in water, and the starch they shed becomes the sauce. Cut the potato so it cooks in about the same time as the pasta, and keep stirring so nothing catches.
3
Stir in the cream and cheese off the heat until melted and creamy, then season with nutmeg, pepper and salt.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the cheese off the direct heat and stir until just melted. Boiling it makes the cheese go stringy and split.
4
Top with the crisp fried onions and serve with a bowl of applesauce.
Swiss Alpine tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bern. Bern is farm-kitchen Switzerland, home of rosti, the golden pan-crisped potato cake once eaten by farmers for breakfast. Alpine dairy dominates: hard mountain cheeses, cream sauces, and cured meats served on wooden boards with pickles and dense bread.
🗺️
Switzerland. Switzerland melts its way to fame with fondue and raclette, alongside crispy rösti potatoes and superb Alpine cheeses and chocolate. French, German, and Italian regions each shape a distinct, dairy-rich cuisine.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Switzerland
RöstiSwitzerland’s golden potato cake, crisp outside, tender inside, flipped whole and served with pride.
Swiss Cheese FondueA communal pot of melted Gruyère and Emmental with white wine and garlic, for dipping bread.
Engadiner NusstorteA buttery shortcrust tart filled with caramelized walnuts, the keeping cake of Switzerland's Engadine valley.
Browse all Switzerland 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 Switzerland meal
Engadiner NusstorteDessert
Berner PlatteDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Älplermagronen?
Alpine macaroni baked with potato, cream, and cheese, topped with fried onions and served with applesauce.
Where does Älplermagronen come from?
Älplermagronen is a Swiss dish from Bern, Switzerland.
Can Älplermagronen be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Älplermagronen 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 Älplermagronen 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 Älplermagronen take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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