Käsespätzle ganz einfach zubereiten
A2 German listening practice · German · Curated for beginners
What does “Spätzle” mean, and why “little sparrows”?
Käsespätzle, this clip’s dish, gets its name from something surprisingly literal: Spätzle is Swabian dialect for “little sparrows,” a diminutive of Spatz (sparrow). The small, irregular, hand-torn shape of the noodles apparently reminded someone, long ago, of little birds — and the name stuck even though nobody thinks about sparrows while eating them today.
Spätzle (already plural; the singular is das Spätzle) come from Swabia in southwestern Germany and are traditionally shaken or scraped straight into boiling water, no pasta machine involved — hence gadgets like the Spätzle-Hobel or Spätzle-Shaker this clip uses. Topped with cheese and fried onions, they become the classic Käsespätzle.