Käsespätzle

Nutrition, per serving

Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities in the recipe below, divided by four servings.

Notable amounts: saturated fat is high at 16 g per serving, split fairly evenly between the alpine cheese and the butter used to fry the onions. Carbohydrate is substantial, driven by both the spätzle dough and the flour in the batter.

History

Käsespätzle pairs spätzle — small irregular noodles traditionally shaped by hand or scraped directly into boiling water — with melted cheese (often Emmental or Bergkäse) and fried onions, the whole thing layered and baked au gratin, tartiflette-style. Spätzle themselves are deeply rooted in the cuisine of Baden-Württemberg and Swabia in southern Germany, as well as in the neighboring Alpine regions of Austria and Switzerland, with each region claiming its own traditional shaping method.

The technical skill of making spätzle (literally “little sparrows” in Swabian dialect, a reference to their irregular shape evoking small birds) remains a family craft passed down through generations, especially the use of a wooden spätzle board on which the dough is scraped directly over boiling water. Traditionally associated with rural and mountain regions, käsespätzle remains today a comforting winter classic across southern Germany and Austria.

Ingredients — for 4 people

• 400 g (3⅓ cups) flour, 4 eggs, water, salt, for the spätzle dough
• 200 g (7 oz) grated Emmental or Bergkäse
• 2 large onions, sliced
• Butter, nutmeg

Step-by-step German käsespätzle recipe

1. Mix the flour, eggs, water, salt and nutmeg into a fairly thick but pourable batter.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and scrape the batter into thin, irregular strands directly into the water, using a spätzle board or a coarse colander.
3. Remove the spätzle with a skimmer as soon as they float to the surface.
4. Sauté the sliced onions in butter until deeply golden and lightly caramelized.
5. Layer alternating rounds of spätzle and grated cheese in a baking dish.
6. Bake until the cheese is fully melted and gratinéed, then scatter over the golden onions before serving.

Cooking method

Technique: batter scraped directly into boiling water to form irregular strands, then layered and baked with the cheese.

Traditional equipment: a perforated wooden spätzle board, a metal spätzle grater.

Benchmarks: the batter must stay thick enough to form strands rather than thin threads; too runny, and it scatters in the cooking water.

Economic context

Flour, eggs and cheese are all inexpensive, widely available staples in Germany and neighboring Alpine regions, which fits käsespätzle’s identity as rural comfort food rather than an occasion dish — the labor of hand-shaping the spätzle is the main cost, not the ingredients.

Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Germany generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.

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