Krautfleckerl (Austrian cabbage and pasta squares)
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
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
Method
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.