Soft little egg noodles made from a thick batter pushed through a board or press into boiling water, then tossed in butter.
What makes it spaetzle
A thick batter of flour, eggs and a little water or milk.
Scraped or pressed straight into boiling water.
Tossed in butter, or browned in it.
Where it comes from
Spaetzle belong as much to Swabia, across the Rhine in south-west Germany, as to Alsace — the Swabians would say more — and they're a shared habit of the Rhine lands rather than something one side invented. In Alsace they're a side for game, stews and dishes in sauce.
The batter is too wet to roll; it's scraped off a board into the water in strands, or pressed through holes. Knepfle, their rounder cousins, are dropped from a spoon.
How it varies
Käsespätzle
Layered with cheese and fried onions — more Swabian and Alpine than Alsatian.
Knepfle
Small dumplings from a spoon, sometimes fried with breadcrumbs.