Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

2 3/4 c Flour 1/2 lb Ground meat or lightly
4 Eggs -smoked farm sausage
Salt 1 c (bauernbratwurst) or
Filling: -leftover roast, stew meat,
1 tb Butter -etc.,
6 Strips medium-lean bacon, Diced
-cut into cubes 3 Eggs
3 md Onions, diced 3 tb To 4 tb chopped fresh
1/4 lb Fresh sausage meat (from -parsley
-sweet Italian sausage Salt and freshly ground
Preferably) -black pepper
1 Hard roll, without crust, Grated nutmeg
-and best when stale 1 Egg
1/2 lb Cooked spinach 3 tb Canned milk

Certainly if anyone were to insist that 'Maultaschen' were the most
delicious of all Swabian specialties, I[=Horst Scharfenberg] would
hardly be prepared to deny it. In fact, as indicated earlier, I
suspect that 'Maultaschen' would have very good chances in a four-way
international competition with ravioli, won tons, and pirogi for the
championship of the Roughly Rectangular Pasta with Meat (plus
Miscellaneous) Filling division. It has been said that 'Maultaschen'
were originally invented in order to allow Swabians to keep eating
meat during Lent by concealing it beneath the pasta shell and amidst
the spinach filling from the eye of the parish priest (if not the
omniscient Deity Himself). The following recipe is typical but far
from definitive, especially where the ingredients for the filling are
concerned. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand or whatever
your fancy (or your conscience) dictates. Dough: enough beef stock or
salted water to cook the 'Maultaschen' Combine the flour, eggs, and
salt in a bowl and mix to make a pasta dough. Then add a little water
and knead until it has a firm but elastic consistency. To make the
filling, melt the butter in a skillet and fry the bacon with the
onions until both are quite translucent. Combine the bacon mixture
with the sausage meat. Moisten the hard roll in water, press dry, and
put through the meat grinder (better than the food mill or food
processor), along with the bacon mixture, cooked spinach, ground meat
or smoked farm sausage, leftover roast, etc. Then fold in the eggs,
parsley, and seasonings; mix together. The filling should be very
spicy indeed. On a board that has been sprinkled with flour, roll out
the dough into rectangular sheets (about twice as wide as you want
your 'Maultaschen' to be). Take a tablespoon measure and put little
dabs of filling at equally spaced 3-inch intervals all down the
middle of one side of the sheet of dough. Mix together the egg and
canned milk and apply it to the spaces in between, the outer edge and
the fold line. Fold the plain half of the sheet of dough over to
cover the filling, press down firmly on the spaces around the little
packets of filling, and use a pastry wheel or knife to separate the
packets into 3-inch square or diamond-shaped 'Maultaschen'. The
process is similar to making ravioli. Cook thoroughly in beef stock
or boiling salted water for about 10 to 15 minutes, dpeending upon
the size of the 'Maultaschen'. They'll bob up to the surface when
they're done; remove them with a slotted spoon and allow to drain.
Serving suggestions: Cut an onion or two into half-rings, fry in
butter until golden brown amd empty the contents of the skillet over
the 'Maultaschen' on the serving dish. Serve with slippery potato
salad or a mixed green salad. Swabian Won Ton Soup: Serve a couple of
'Maultaschen' in a bowl of hearty beef broths; garnish liberally with
finely chopped onion. Swabian Fried Won Tons: Allow the boiled
'Maultaschen' to cool, then cut into strips. Saute in a skillet until
crisp on the outside. Serve with potato salad. Maultaschen Croque
Monsieur: Arrange several portions in an ovenproof casserole, cover
with boiled ham and a couple of slices lof cheese, and heat in the
oven until the cheese reaches the desired consistency. Serve with
green salad. From: THE CUISINES OF GERMANY by Horst Scharfenberg,
Simon Schuster/Poseidon Press, New York. 1989 Posted by: Karin
Brewer, Cooking Echo, 7/92

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