There’s hardly any other dish that costs so little yet delivers so much as Krautfleckerl. A head of cabbage, onions, pasta, sugar and spices – that’s it. No meat, no expensive ingredients, no special kitchen equipment required. And yet, the end result is a dish that tastes of far more than its ingredients would suggest.
‘Fleckerl’ are a type of pasta commonly found in Austria; the dough usually contains egg, and they are small and diamond-shaped. They are virtually impossible to find outside the country. However, you can use any other short, flat pasta, such as Italian Stracci Toscani – or you can simply break up some wide ribbon pasta.
There are hardly any more basic ingredients than that – apart from the pasta, just onions or shallots and cabbage. This could be white cabbage or, as we use here, pointed cabbage, also known as hispi cabbage.
Cut the hard stalk out of the cabbage; we’ve explained how to do this here. Remove the outer leaves, then dice the cabbage into cubes about 1 cm wide. The onions should also be diced, but not too finely.
Traditionally, lard is heated at this stage, but we use clarified butter. If you want to stick to a vegan diet, use a neutral vegetable oil. Add a little sugar straight away; it will melt quickly over a medium-high heat. Use the widest frying pan you can find for this.
Let the sugar caramelise until it turns a golden-brown colour…
…only then do you add the cabbage and onions, stir well straight away, and then let it brown gently.
White cabbage is inherently unremarkable, with an almost neutral flavour. However, when roasted with sugar and fat, rather than simply steamed until tender, it develops a depth of flavour you would never expect from this vegetable. Some recipes call for the cabbage to be cooked with a lid on, but we advise against this.
Once the cabbage and onions have softened, after about 5 minutes, add caraway seeds. These are an essential part of the dish. If you find the flavour a bit strong, don’t leave them out altogether; instead, use ground caraway, which blends more subtly into the dish.
When the cabbage and onions have started to brown – which should take a good 10 minutes – season with sweet paprika, mix everything together well and immediately deglaze with a little white vinegar. This is also key to the flavour of the dish, as it balances the sweetness of the sugar and the browned vegetables.
Now we’ll also add a little vegetable stock (or water) to prevent the spices from burning and becoming bitter, and to help the cabbage and onions soften a little more. You want to achieve a lovely, dark colour – that’s where all the flavour lies. Allow a total of 25–30 minutes for this result, during which you’ll only need to stir very occasionally or add a little more liquid.
Now stir in the pasta, which has been cooked al dente at the same time, season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper – and it’s ready.
Serve with fresh herbs such as chives or parsley; today we opted for lovage.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 4 people):
500 g “Fleckerl”, or other short, flat pasta shapes or ribbon pasta, broken by hand
800 g white cabbage, diced
2 small onions or 4 shallots, chopped
30 g clarified butter (or lard), or alternatively neutral vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar
½ – 1 tsp caraway seeds (or ground caraway)
½ – 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
3 tbsp light vinegar (e.g. white wine vinegar)
100 – 150 ml vegetable stock (or water – add as required)
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs to garnish
