Schabziger Pasta

The small but highly efficient emergency medical service of the Swiss canton of Glarus includes in their medics' toolkit a small vial of Schabziger, the local cheese. When a person passes out, the vial is opened below his or her nostrils until he or she wakes up. Failure to respond to the Schabziger treatment is not a good sign. It is unclear whether people wake up because they think the divine smell means they have reached Heaven, or rather because they feel this ghastly smell can only mean they are nearing to Hell. In any case, failure to respond is interpreted as a certain sign of death. Locals and long-term residents of Glarus enjoy the smell while most foreigners are taken aback by its pugent, tear-jerking strength.

Schabziger [shaptseegair] or sapsago is a tiny cylindrical cheese made from fresh whey cheese, a bit like a hard ricotta. But whereas ricotta is soft and velvetty, Schabziger is a sort of in-your-face pungent curmudgeon. The big difference with ricotta is that since the Crusades, Schabziger has been flavored with a generous amount of dried Trigonella caerulea aka Blue Fenugreek. Not everyone enjoys Schabziger's pungent, tear-jerking strength and even in Glarus it is used only as a condiment. The first time I bought it, years ago, I almost fainted as I tried to eat a piece of it. But you get used to it, and nowadays half our Schabziger production is exported beyond the confines of Glarus and into Europe.

Here is one simple but also sophisticated way of enjoying this most intriguing cheese. As you'll see, the schabziger is not grated on the pasta, nor included in the filling, but built into the pasta dough.

Schabziger Pasta
500gr flour
200gr spinach leaves
1 stick Schabziger (100gr/3oz)
0.5 dl / 3 tbsp olive oil
1dl / 7 tbsp water
3 eggs

Stuffing for Schabziger Ravioli
500gr séré, quark or ricotta
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
White pepper
Salt

Let's start with making the green schabziger pasta dough. Place the washed, picked and stemmed spinach leaves in a blender and add the oil. Why oil? Because chlorophyll, the green coloring agent in the spinach, only dissolved in oil.

There you are. Pour into a bowl but don't drink this unless you are in a coma.

We will now prepare the pasta using flour, eggs and our green alpine brew.

Combine the eggs with the flour in a large kitchen machine or bowl if you work by hand.

Mix until you get a crumbly mixture.

Add a third of the spinach-schabziger mixture. It is very important that you keep firmly on top of the water content in your dough. If you add too much liquid, you'll need to add more flour later to compensate and will either end up with an unwieldy large batch, or run out of flour. Better add the liquid little by little.

Start the machine again to fully incorporate the green liquid. I love the reflections on my Kenwood kitchen machine!

Test the texture - is is too dry or too wet? Add more green liquid if too dry, more flour if too wet.

There you are - a nice, smooth dough. Check that the dough is not too wet - Thou Shall Not Stick - is the first commandement of pasta dough..

Knead until smooth.

Wrap it so that no part is exposed to the air and let it rest for 30 minutes in a cool place.

Let's make the stuffing, based on séré (German : quark) a lean fresh cheese made from whey, a Swiss cousin of ricotta. We need the cheese to be as dry as possible so as not to rip through the ravioli dough.

Place the cheese in a clean cotton cloth or a cheesecloth if you have it. Let it drip overnight.

Mix séré, quark or ricotta with the flour and egg.

Season generously with white pepper and salt.

Prepare your workspace, with the pasta machine or rolling pin, ample flour, rolling cutters (how about my fancy double cutter?), filling and a clean cloth or pasta drying rack.

Start laminating prune-sized pieces of your dough through the pasta machine, folding it in half between each pass. Stop when the dough has gone through the next-to-last setting on the machine and is smooth as silk.

Decide the size you want fo yur raviolis before you start. Place little balls of stuffing at equal interval, not forgetting that you'll need another pasta sheet the same size or to fold in half the one you use.

Seal and cut using the rolling cutter. Do not worry if a little dough oozes out as you roll...

...nor if you can't roll straight. Irregular raviolis denote homemade pasta and most guests will forgive you. Tell them 'That's the way it's done in the Alps' if anybody complains.

If the dough is too sticky, cover with flour before cutting.

Try to obtain raviolis of the same size.

Flour generously and leave them on a rack or floured cloth so they don't stick.

Boil for a minute or so in your largest pot filled with salted water brought to a rolling boil.

How about that? A delicious, intensly green ravioli with a delicate but very present Schabziger pungency ...

... and filled with a light cheese filling. Diet, FXcuisine-style!

If you feel that this is too much for you, just omit the ravioli and stuffing stage and cut your pasta in your favorite shape, and serve with butter ...

... or grated Sbrinz. A really unique pasta!

Original recipe from:
Schwert Restaurant
Jürg Weber
Landstrasse 13a
8754 Netstal
Glarus, Switzerland