Ah, So That's What Krautfleckerl Are.

German with an Austrian slant.

What tends to be the main topic of conversation of any adult? Oh yes, food. How to make it, how to eat it and more importantly, where to find it. We might drop hints about it....

" Oh, that cake you made last time I was here was delicious. "

or brag about it

" Oh, you must try what I made for supper last night. It was fantastic. "

but talk about it we do.

When I visit the older villagers I often find out real culinary jewels that are passed down from mother to daughter but sadly with that new trend of buying ready made food it might become a cuisine of extinction. One dish I've heard a lot of through the years was this Krautfleckerl.

It appeared to be a very complicated and cumbersome dish because to me a Fleckerl is a bit of rag, or a rug and how on earth does that combine with cabbage? ( p/s, Kraut = cabbage)

About a month ago the penny dropped when a local villager told me that Fleckerl is pasta shaped like a little square, Farfalle or something like it. Aha, the degree of difficulty dwindled and I felt confident to ask how this Krautfleckerl is made.

My personal understanding of it was that one cut the cabbage finely, and fried it with the usual onions and garlic until tender while at the same time boiling a pot of this square shaped pasta. Mix the two together and top it with a bit of - here comes another Austrian word - Topfen ( cottage cheese ) and season to taste. Easy indeed and I treated Bob to it for supper yesterday.

Improvisation is a must in a small village and I used penne-shaped pasta ( we only buy those because Mausi likes playing with a dry stick of penne...again, any other shape she won't deign to play with... ), chilly but left out the cottage cheese.

Gosh, I have to admit that it was an instant success with Bob. How do I know? Well, he showed me the Bob seal of approval...an upturned, empty plate of food! I really have to pull up my culinary socks as these upturned plates are a bit of a rarity these days...

Biggi