Cheesy bread dumplings in broth

And more comforting recipes from Luisa Weiss.

Nov 01, 2024

Sometimes, when she doesn’t feel inspired to cook dinner, Luisa Weiss sets out what’s needed to make the classic German evening meal of open-faced sandwiches: Dark bread, some cold cuts, cheese, a cucumber or some tomato.

But then she goes to her cookbook shelves: “I pick out one that speaks to me in that moment. I take it to bed with me and I read it in bed, and I try to immerse myself in somebody else’s thinking, and other food cultures, and invariably something in that will coax me out, and get me back in the kitchen, and get me excited about cooking again.”

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When I first started reading Luisa’s writing, it was decades ago in her blog, The Wednesday Chef, which she started in secret in 2005, writing in the early mornings and late nights while spending her days as a literary scout in New York. She’s since returned to Germany, where she lived on and off growing up, and written a memoir and now, two books about German cooking. She also pens a Substack called

Letter from Berlin

In this week’s episode of The Dinner Plan, Luisa says she sees cookbooks as “windows into other people’s lives and into other people’s worlds…I feel like I have a dialogue going between me and my cookbooks…I really like going deep into a cookbook and cooking a ton from it, and going back to it night after night.”

When everything feels bleak, this is a way back to the kitchen.

Luisa’s “extremely cozy” new cookbook, Classic German Cooking, collects dozens of beloved recipes from the region, like kaspressknödel, a cheesy Austrian bread dumpling that’s crisped in a pan until golden and melty and then slipped into a bowl of broth (scroll down for the recipe); celery root cutlets with punchy, pickle-y remoulade; and a crunchy kohlrabi-apple salad with whole-grain mustard, sour cream, and apple cider vinegar.

Luisa and I also talked about the soup her kids like best, her favorite way to eat a whole head of fennel for dinner, and the vegetarian cookbook that soothed her during a rough winter. I’d be so glad if you’d listen in—and leave a rating and review.

Listen on Spotify

Luisa’s cookbook picks and recipe recommendations

Confit Tandoori Chickpeas (Ottolenghi; read a love letter to this dish here.)
East by Meera Sodha, particularly the Caramelized Onion and Chile Ramen
Dinner: Changing the Game by Melissa Clark, especially the Spicy Pork and Black Bean Chili
Tenderheart by Hetty McKinnon, especially the Tangy Stir-Fried Cabbage With Glass Noodles
Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop, especially the Sichuanese Chopped Celery With Beef
Vegetarian for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff

Plus some new books on her radar

Meera Sodha’s Dinner (out in the UK now, US edition next spring)
Jenny Rosenstrach’s The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple

Kaspressknödel

Pan-Fried Cheesy Bread Dumplings

My husband comes from a family of athletes who spend their free time moving their bodies outdoors in a variety of different ways. I come from a family of readers who spend their free time prone with a book. He indulges my family’s ways each summer on the beach in Italy; I indulge his by agreeing to go skiing with him in Austria for a week each winter. Marriage is all about compromise, isn’t it?

While I came to skiing later in life and do not, in fact, consider it the pinnacle of outdoor movement, there are worse things than spending a week in Austria each year in the depths of winter, which happens to be the perfect time to indulge in the best of Austrian comfort food. My ideal Austrian lunch is one perfect cheesy-toasty Kaspressknödel floating in a pool of amber broth flecked with chives.

A Kaspressknödel is a patty made of cubed bread and grated aromatic cheese, bound together with a mix of sautéed onions, eggs, and minced parsley, then fried in a pan until crusty and melting at the same time. The flavors are reminiscent of a grilled cheese that died and went to heaven. While most dumplings are poached in liquid first, Kaspressknödel are first shaped and fried, and then slipped into broth (or eaten with a salad and no broth). Kas is Austrian dialect for cheese and a Pressknödel is a squashed and fried dumpling rather than a round, poached one.

On the Austrian government’s website for the national ministry of farming and forestry, regions and water management (that just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?), I learned that Kaspressknödel are typical for the entire Alpine region of Austria; the only thing that differs from province to province is the type of cheese used. It may not be easy for you to find Salzburgian Bierkäse or Tyrolean Bergkäse, though if you can, you should use them here. Acceptable substitutes are Swiss Gruyère or Emmentaler and French Cantal or Comté.

In Austria, every baker and grocery store sells enormous bags of Knödelbrot, or cubed dried bread specifically for dumplings. Since we can’t get that here, I use stale Kaiser or white rolls instead.

MAKES 13 DUMPLINGS

6 stale Kaiser or hard white rolls (about 13oz / 380g total)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium onions, finely minced
1 tsp salt
Medium handful of flat-leaf
Parsley, finely minced, optional
Freshly ground black pepper
25 scrapes of whole nutmeg
1 cup / 250ml whole milk
3 eggs
7 oz / 200g Alpine cheese, grated
Clarified butter or vegetable oil for frying
Beef or vegetable broth for serving, optional
Minced chives for serving

First, cut the rolls into ½-inch / 1.3cm cubes. Place the cubed rolls in a large bowl.
Next, melt the butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat and add the onions and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 8minutes, until the onions are glassy and fragrant but not browning. Remove from the heat, add the parsley, and stir well. Scrape the onions into the bowl with the bread. Season to taste with pepper and add the nutmeg.
Place the milk in a bowl and whisk in the eggs until completely smooth. Pour this mixture evenly over the bread and, using your hands, toss lightly until all of the cubes are evenly moistened and the ingredients are well-distributed.
Add the cheese to the bowl, mixing lightly to evenly distribute the cheese. Now gently pack down the mixture and set aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
Place a well-seasoned cast-iron or nonstick pan over medium heat and melt a knob of clarified butter or use a couple of spoonfuls of vegetable oil.
Using your hands, shape four dumplings out of the mixture, 3 inches / 7.5cm across and about 1 to 1½ inches / 2.5 to 4cm thick. Smooth the sides of the dumplings, then place them in the hot pan, pressing down gently. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on one side, then flip and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes on the other side. Flip again and cook for another minute or two. The dumplings should be a deep golden brown and slightly crisp on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.
Place the dumplings on a serving platter and repeat with the next batch, adding more butter or oil to the pan. If you plan to serve these in broth, heat it up now. Serve two dumplings per person in a ladleful or two of broth and a sprinkle of chives on top.
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