Maultaschen (Pasta Squares) – Traditional German Recipe

The south-west of Germany, the so called Schwabenland is home to the Maultasche, hence the regional description “schwäbische Maultasche”. In the early days any leftovers from the days before, were used to be the filling for the Pasta Squares without the family members noticing. In the period of fasting meat was forbidden. So people filled the Pasta Squares with meat, which gave the Maultaschen the additional name “Heergottsbscheißerle” which translates into something like “The little cheaters on god”. The first written recipes are dated from 1844, and now we are so lucky to even get them in the supermarket. (German Source)

If you like to prepare them yourself, you need about 2 hours and the following ingredients.

For the dough for 6 people you need

• 3 eggs (6 eggs in total)
• 300g flour
• 50g semolina
• salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 table spoon whipping cream

For the filling

• 300g spinach
• 2 large onions
• 20g butter
• 2 table spoons sunflower oil
• 1 garlic
• 1 tea spoon of sugar
• salt and pepper
• 100g breadcrumbs
• 150g strong tasting mountain cheese
• 2 eggs
• 50g whipping cream
• 300g minced meat
• nutmeg

Vegetable consommé to serve the Maultaschen in. Schwäbische Maultaschen are also great with scrambled eggs, when roasted in a frying pan or in addition to a vegetable soup, next to carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, potatoes, whatever you fancy…

1. For the dough of the Pasta Squares, mix the eggs with 50ml water. Add the flour and the semolina with a generous hint of salt and mix altogether to form a nice dough. I mixed it by hand as the dough always used to move op the dough hooks, no matter what I did. After you are done, wrap the dough in cellophane and put it in the fridge.
2. To prepare the filling Option1 clean the spinach and remove thick stems. Wash the spinach in warm water, rip is roughly apart and dry it.
   Option 2 buy frozen spinach, remove thicker stems and save the washing and drying procedure, which is what I did.
3. Peel the onions and cut them into small cubes. Place butter and oil in a frying pan and roast the onions golden brown. Add the peeled and cut / pressed garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. Add the spinach and keep cooking until it has decreased and all water that might have come from the spinach has evaporated. Now add the breadcrumbs and keep cooking for another 2 minutes. Take the saucepan off the stove and let it cool down.
4. Rub the cheese and mix with eggs, cream and minced meat and add it to the cooked part of the filling. Mix well, add pepper, salt as well as a little bit of nutmeg.
5. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in four parts. Do the same with the filling. Take the dough and press it through a noodle machine or roll it out by hand to the thinnest you can’t see through.
6. Now add ¼ of the filling on one 3rd of the dough
7. Mix 1 egg yolk and 1 table spoon of whipping cream together and apply on the inside of the dough, to be able to glue the pasta squares together.
8. Fold them together and cut out the single pasta squares.
9. Now boil them in vegetable consommé for about 10 minutes, while making sure, the water doesn’t cook. Serve the Maultaschen with consommé or as described on top. Bon Appetit