Pesto Spaetzle

The friends gifted us a ton of food love from Huber's Butchery. There was a box of fresh eier spaetzle that shouldn't be kept long in the fridge. That was the first thing we should eat. So we quickly made a dinner out of it. The portions were just right for the two persons at dinner (one average eater and one small eater). There was no point saving a batch of cooked spaetzle for the next day's lunch. It would be soggy. 

We could just about cook it in any way. It's just egg pasta after all. It's usually cooked with cream or pan-fried with butter, and topped with fried onions as a side. It could be stir-fried with asparagus. It could also be plonked into a gratin. I voted for pesto. One could do almond pesto, green pea pesto, lemon and sausages, kale or chard in ricotta cream sauce, and just about anything.

We didn't have much time to head out to the supermarket, and we should just do an easy version where we would have the required ingredients at home. And yes we did, including a ton of fresh basil leaves! Decided to go with an easy spicy pesto with a ton of garlic and parmesan. Spaetzle cooks super fast. This version cooked in under a minute in boiling water. If we really prefer it more chewy, I'd say just blanch it. Thirty seconds suffice. #ImpieCooks2020

I would be happy with just that — plain pasta and pesto with shallots. But the man needed more depth of flavors and protein. Hahaha. The freezer had frozen scallops and cooked deshelled prawns. Seared those to go with the spaetzle. There was one last ancho chilli (it's a dried poblano) that we sliced up and tossed in with the seafood. Ancho is sweet and mild, but it provided enough flavor to complement plain flour and eggs and cuts through the cheese.