Schlutzkrapfen Stuffed With Spinach And Quark

Schlutzkrapfen, German Ravioli ?

Why not ? I just bought quark the other day, I better use before it turns bad. Spinach, parmesan are always in my fridge, so, I was set, and ready.

Note on the recipe : 

The recipe ask for rye flour, but I substituted it with buckwheat, just because I love it and curious. If you do use buckwheat, somehow the dough will be a bit dry, so add water a tablespoon at a time (I ended up to use 2 tablespoons) until you can make a smooth dough.

I rolled the dough using my good old hand crank pasta machine, with setting #1, so it was on the thicker side, I think I'd probably try to use setting #2 or even #3 next time. Also, you need to adjust the cooking time when you decide to use buckwheat. I try to boil it for 2 minutes ask the recipe as for, it was way to raw, so I boiled for 5 minutes, I still felt like the texture was not right, so I decided to boil for 10 minutes. I finally got the texture the way I like. I think this is due to the thickness of my dough. The best think for you is, use your own judgement base on how thick and what kind of flour you use for the recipe.

To make brown butter, I know that most of you are already know how to make it, but I doubt that my sisters really know how, so this is for my sisters. To make brown butter, melt the butter over medium heat and heat up slowly until it is golden brown and has nutty aroma. Then, remove form theat, pour through a sieve that has been lined with cheese cloth. Pour into a jar, close tightly with its lid, refrigerate until needed.

The taste was not disappoint, I think it probably much better if I had not substitute the rye with buckwheat, but it was worth trying. I am curious to try it with rye flour, so I'll be making this again.  

Schlutzkrapfen Stuffed With Spinach And Quark
Recipe adapted from : Alfons Schuhbeck's My Bavarian Cookbook
serve 4

For the dough :
3.5 oz (100) g unbleached all purpose flour
3.5 (100 g) rye flour 
2 large eggs
1 tbs olive oil
salt

For the stuffing :
12 oz (350 g) spinach leaves
1/2 onion, diced
pinch of minced garlic
1 tbs butter or olive oil
5 oz (150 g) quark
1.4 oz (40 g) grated Alpine cheese, or Monterey jack
1 tbs brown butter (see note above)
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg

Additional ingredients :
Flour for dusting
1 lightly whisked egg white
3.5 oz (100 g) brown butter (see note above)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs finely chopped chives, parsley, or scallions
1 tbs grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

For the dough : mix all ingredients with hand, knead until smooth. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the stuffing : wash and drain the spincah leaves, blanch for 1 minutes in salted boiling water. Strain, then immediately plunge into ice water. Strain again, squeeze out as much water as possible, then finely chopped. Place the chopped spinach in a bowl, set aside.

In another  bowl, combine quark, cheese, brown butter, freshly ground black pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Add this to the spinach bowl.

Saute the onion with butter or olive oil until soft, add garlic, saute for a few second, until fragrant. Cooled. When it is cool enough, add this to spinach-quark mixture. Mix well, set aside.

For the Schlutzkrapfen : roll out the dough into a very thin 2.4 inch (6 cm)  strips wide. Working with one strip at a time (cover the other with plastic wrap so they won't dry out), brush the strip with egg white. Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle living gap of 1.2 to 1.6 inches (3 to 4 cm) in between. Place another pasta strip on top, and press firmly around the filling. Cut with cookie cutter into 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter (as you can see, I shape mine into crescent), press the edge firmly to seal and smoothing out any air bubble. Or, the way I did it was, make the strips wider, and position the filling little bit off center (see picture below) then enclose it. 

To serve :  heat brown butter and garlic in a skillet. Cook Schlutzkrapfen in salted boiling water for 2 minutes (firm to bite) see my note above if you are using buckwheat, remove with slotted spoon, add to skillet, season with salt and pepper, toss well. Place it into 4 serving plate, sprinkle with  grated parmesan or pecorino cheese and finely chopped chives or parsley. 

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