Maultaschen are a Swabian speciality consist of an outer pocket of noodle dough and a filling made of gound meat and spinach – they are also known as Swabian pockets. Legend has it that they were invented by monks to conceal the fact that they were eating meat during Lent. They are traditionally served in a broth with toasted breadcrumbs and parsley or with onion rings and are the ideal executive meal because they can be made the day before and stored in the fridge.In fact, everything can be made the day before and assembled on the night of the dinner. For those that have no inclination to make their own dough, ready made pasta

can be bought at most delis and if push comes to shove, wonton wrappers can be used as a substitute, albeit not as good as the real thing.

Ingredients

• 400 g wheat flour
• 3 eggs
• pinch of salt
• for each egg, half an eggshell of water

Method

• You could also use a food processor, place everything in the food processor and combine until you have a firm ball.
• Alternatively, mix eggs with salt and water, sift flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
• Break the eggs into it and blend all the ingredients together.
• Take out of the bowl and then knead the dough on a board until air pockets can be seen when the dough is cut.
• If the dough is too thick add a little water or an egg white but remember that the dough shouldn’t be too soft.
• Form a ball and place on a floured surface, cover with a cloth and allow to rest in a cool place.
• Now you can prepare the filling.

Ingredients

• 400g fresh spinach, cleaned, boiled, rinsed and coarsely chopped
• 20g diced cured bacon
• 20g butter
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 3-4 stale rolls, crusts removed
• 150g ham or cold meat, diced
• 250g minced meat (pork or beef)
• 2-3 eggs
• a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg
• boiling saltwater or meat broth

Method

• Braise the bacon in butter for a couple of minutes, add the chopped onion and spinach and braise for a couple more minutes.
• Soak the stale rolls in water until soft and then squeeze out the excess water and chop the rolls into pieces.
• In a large bowl mix the prepared ingredients with ham and minced meat.
• Add the eggs and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Roll out the noodle dough on a floured surface into rectangular sheets (about twice as wide as you want your Maultaschen to be).
• Use a tablespoon of filling at equally spaced 6 cm intervals all down the middle of one side of the sheet of dough.
• Fold the plain half of the sheet of dough over to cover the filling and press firmly on the spaces around the pockets of filling.
• Cut into large squares with a sharp knife.
• Put them into boiling saltwater or meat broth and let simmer for 10-15 minutes depending on the size.
• They can be served in broth with toasted bread crumbs and parsley or with onion rings.
• Alternatively, slice an onion and fry the rings in butter until brown and serve with the soup.