INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

DOUGH
FILLING
Combine the flour, eggs, and salt in a bowl and mix to make a pasta dough.
Then add a little water and knead until it has a firm but elastic
consistency.
To make the filling, melt the butter in a skillet and fry the bacon with
the onions until both are quite translucent. Combine the bacon mixture with
the sausage meat.
Moisten the hard roll in water, press dry, and put through the meat grinder
(better than the food mill or food processor), along with the bacon
mixture, cooked spinach, ground meat or smoked farm sausage, leftover
roast, etc.  Then fold in the eggs, parsley, and seasonings; mix together.
The filling should be very spicy indeed.
On a board that has been sprinkled with flour, roll out the dough into
rectangular sheets (about twice as wide as you want your 'Maultaschen' to
be).  Take a tablespoon measure and put little dabs of filling at equally
spaced 3-inch intervals all down the middle of one side of the sheet of
dough.  Mix together the egg and canned milk and apply it to the spaces in
between, the outer edge and the fold line. Fold the plain half of the sheet
of dough over to cover the filling, press down firmly on the spaces around
the little packets of filling, and use a pastry wheel or knife to separate
the packets into 3-inch square or diamond- shaped 'Maultaschen'. The
process is similar to making ravioli. Cook thoroughly in beef stock or
boiling salted water for about 10 to 15 minutes, dpeending upon the size of
the 'Maultaschen'.  They'll bob up to the surface when they're done; remove
them with a slotted spoon and allow to drain.
Serving suggestions:
Cut an onion or two into half-rings, fry in butter until golden brown amd
empty the contents of the skillet over the 'Maultaschen' on the serving
dish. Serve with slippery potato salad or a mixed green salad. Certainly if
anyone were to insist that 'Maultaschen' were the most delicious of all
Swabian specialties, I[=Horst Scharfenberg] would hardly be prepared to
deny it.  In fact, as indicated earlier, I suspect that 'Maultaschen' would
have very good chances in a four-way interna- tional competition with
ravioli, won tons, and pirogi for the champion- ship of the Roughly
Rectangular Pasta with Meat (plus Miscellaneous) Filling division.
It has been said that 'Maultaschen' were originally invented in order to
allow Swabians to keep eating meat during Lent by concealing it beneath the
pasta shell and amidst the spinach filling from the eye of the parish
priest (if not the omniscient Deity Himself). The following recipe is
typical but far from definitive, especially where the ingre- dients for the
filling are concerned.  Feel free to use whatever you have on hand or
whatever your fancy (or your conscience) dictates.
From:  THE CUISINES OF GERMANY by Horst Scharfenberg
Simon & Schuster/Poseidon Press, New York, 1989
Posted by:  Karin Brewer, Fidonet COOKING Echo, 7/92
From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

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