I had these pizokels, a kind of pasta looking a little like crude noodles, in a restaurant near my office, which specialises in the cuisine of the Grison part of
Switzerland. Massimo, who runs the place, has
connections to the Italian Valtellino, but also to the Valley of Poschiavo in the Grisons. In
December I ate at the restaurant with a friend and the speciality of the day was this dish.
I loved the slightly sweet taste of the pizokel, and Massimo was so generous as to
give me his recipe.
So here is my take (actually, the topping) on his dish. We had it on Christmas eve
and the kids seemed to like it too.
One last thing: the
recipe as suggested in the picture makes enough for two very good sized meals
for a family of four.
What you need
- 150 g wheat or spelt
flour
- 150 g buckwheat flour
- 150 g chestnut flower
(or purée , but then you need to adjust the liquid)
- 300 – 400 ml milk
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 10 g salt
- a bunch of parsley, chopped
- 1nob of butter for
frying
- one good-sized onion
chopped
- for carnivores, thin
slices of streaky bacon, cut into mouth-sized pieces
- 1 – 2 largish leeks,
cut into 1cm slices
- ½ cabbage (any kind,
perhaps except red cabbage), cut into 1cm strips
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
(not in the picture) in thin slices
- 3-4 carrots, sliced
- 80 ml of white wine
- salt and pepper
- 200-300 g mature
cheese, an Alp cheese preferably, grated
What you do
- Mix the flours, milk,
eggs and salt into a fairly thick batter (I made it a bit too thin) and beat
with a wooden spoon until bubbles rise to the top if you stop beating it.
- Add the parsley and
leave to sit for about 20 minutes.
- Bring a large pot of
salt water to the boil.
- On a wet chopping board
spread some of the batter, which you then cut with a large knife into noodle
width and wipe into the boiling water. Traditionally the
batter is run over a wet board into boiling water (you can see how this is done
very briefly, 1:20 – 1:28 in this video.
I was lazy and used a special contraption for making “Spätzli”, which
are small dumplings instead of the flat, thickish noodley things)
- When the
pizokels, come to the top they are done. They are skimmed off and cooled in a
sieve with ice-cold water running over them (to keep them firm and allow the excess
to be frozen).
- Place them in an
ovenproof dish, about 3 cm deep. (Add butter flakes if you like and don’t mind
the calories…)
- In a large frying pan
melt the butter, add the onion, the garlic (the bacon now if you are using any)
and the vegetables. Stir vigorously as if stir-frying.
- Add the wine and a
little veggie broth if it looks too dry.
- When the vegetables
are done to the level of bite you like, distribute them over the pizokels and
cover with the grated cheese.
- Bake in the oven or
under the grill, making sure the pizokels are hot and the cheese is melted.
I made this the other
day for three, but with a big summer salad (tomatoes and cucumbers with an
Italian dressing, i.e. salt, pepper, herbs, balsamic vinegar and olive oil) it
can easily make a meal for four, as it ended up doing for us, unless these four
are ravenous youngsters. It’s an easy meal and used up some of our plentiful garden
veggies (courgettes and peppers). You could probably make a rösti from raw
potatoes, but the two layers would take a little longer and somewhat more fat
might be needed. 
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