Krautfleckerl (Austrian cabbage and pasta squares)
An Austrian dish of square pasta tossed with cabbage cooked low and slow until it caramelises into a sweet, deeply browned tangle, which takes considerably longer than simply softening it and is the whole point of the dish. Adding a pinch of sugar partway through the cabbage's cooking speeds up the caramelisation without making the dish taste sweet.
Prep15 min
Cook45 min
Servings4
Christoph's Krautfleckerl, the cabbage cooked low and slow until it genuinely caramelises rather than just softening.
Ingredients
Units
Temperature
Servings
Krautfleckerl
- 700 g white cabbage, cored, thinly sliced rounded
- 100 g onion, finely chopped rounded
- 40 g butter rounded
- 10 g sugar rounded
- 300 g fleckerl or square pasta rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly ground black pepper rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté for 4 minutes.
- Add the cabbage and toss to coat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until it starts to soften and reduce in volume.
- Sprinkle in the sugar and continue cooking for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is deeply caramelised, a rich golden brown, and sweetly soft.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water according to the package, until al dente. Reserve a little of the pasta water, then drain.
- Toss the cooked pasta with the caramelised cabbage, adding a splash of the reserved pasta water if needed to loosen. Season with salt and pepper.
Notes
- Cook the cabbage low and slow, well past just softening. Genuine caramelisation takes 35 to 40 minutes over gentle heat; rushed at high heat, the cabbage steams and softens without developing the sweet, deeply browned character that defines this dish.
- The pinch of sugar isn’t there to sweeten the dish. It speeds up caramelisation by giving the natural sugars in the cabbage a boost; the finished dish tastes savoury, not sweet.
- Don’t skip stirring occasionally. Cabbage left completely undisturbed in a pan can scorch in spots before the rest has caramelised evenly.
- It keeps and reheats well for 3 days, and the flavour deepens further overnight.
Ingredient substitutions
- Fleckerl are traditional small square pasta; any small pasta shape, such as farfalle broken up, works as a substitute.
- A little smoked bacon, rendered with the onion, is a traditional non-vegetarian addition.
- A grating of nutmeg stirred in at the end is a common finishing touch.
From Christoph Mayer