Detailed Instructions
Makes 8 medium-sized portions
This noodle, ham and cabbage bake will fill your house with the most amazing aroma. The mushroom and cheese pairing couldn’t be better, the cabbage is sweet and subdued, and the spätzle give the dish substantial comfort-foodie satisfaction. The ham presents a pop of flavor in every other bite, set off against the mellowness of the other flavors. Emmenthaler is key to pulling this gratinesque casserole together. It’s mild, yet very flavorful, beautifully nuanced … it’s Sir Lawrence Olivier to everyday Swiss cheese’s Tony Danza. Preceded by a salad and followed by a fruity dessert, Spätzle and Savoy with Black Forest Ham makes an entrée worthy of company and is especially welcome on a winter’s evening.
Ingredients for the Spätzle:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
6 eggs
¾ tsp salt (or to taste, which will be kind of hard to know except in retrospect)
¼ tsp nutmeg
Directions:
- In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or whisk, combine all ingredients. Continue to mix until the ingredients are fully homogenized (no or few lumps). Its consistency will be in between a batter and a dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rest for ½-hour.
- Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a gentle boil, clean up, and carry out the gratin prep.
- Once the batter has rested, push it, a few Tbs at a time, through a colander with approximately ¼-inch holes, directly into the boiling water. If you happen to have a colander and pot that will fit together like a double boiler, perfect. If not, you might need a buddy to hold the colander over the pot as you push the batter through. Scrape the dough back and forth with a large, flexible silicone spatula or bowl scraper. Give the noodles a gentle stir to make sure they’re not sticking together. Introducing the noodles to the water will probably halt the boil, but that’s OK. The water should simply be on the cusp of a simmer. In less than a minute, the noodles will float to the surface. Skim them out of the water with a slotted spoon and place them on a clean tea towel. Repeat the whole process with a few more Tbs of batter. As you’re ready to place more noodles on the towel, lift one side of the towel, roll the noodles to the other side, and let them pile up there. You’d better put up that hipster hair of yours into a man-bun and get prepared to sweat. (There are plenty of other ways to make spätzle, by the way: with an offset spatula, or with specialized equipment.)
Ingredients for the Gratin:
2 large handfuls of med-to-small button mushrooms (8½-9 oz.)
2 Tbs olive oil
1 large onion, cut into small cubes (11¼ oz. of cubed onion)
7 oz. Black Forest ham, cut into cubes
½ small Savoy cabbage, cleaned, washed, cored, and cut into strips (8¾ oz. of cabbage strips)
8½ oz. cream
10½ oz. Emmenthaler cheese, grated (with a food processor, I mean, seriously)
½ tsp salt, or to taste
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
- Halve the medium-sized mushrooms. Leave the smaller ones whole. (Each piece of mushroom should weigh about ¼-oz.)
- Heat a large cast-iron skillet over med-high heat for 2 minutes. Add oil plus one small piece of onion. When the onion begins to sizzle, add remaining onion, plus mushrooms, ham, and cabbage. Raise heat to high, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Off heat, set aside.
- Place the noodles in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Pour cream over noodles. Add the cabbage mixture. Sprinkle cheese over the cabbage mixture. Season with salt and pepper, but be aware that the cheese and ham are already salty. Mix the gratin well; if you use your hands, this will be not only easy, but kind of fun. Press the gratin evenly into the pan. Cover with foil.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then remove foil. Continue baking for 25-35 minutes more, or until the cheese has melted, the gratin is heated through and bubbling around the edges, and the top of the gratin has browned and looks a little crispy. Let the gratin rest for 5 minutes before digging into it.
Good leftover, but best fresh.
Noodle, Ham and Cabbage Bake
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Photo Credits for all images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Hover over photos and/or green text for pop-up info. Click at will.
Where ever I’ve presented alternative measurements in ounces, you’d be better off to go with the ounces.
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