Linsen mit Spätzle und Saitenwürstle

The story

Linsen mit Spätzle is the dish many Swabians call their national meal: brown lentils cooked with smoked bacon and vegetables, soured with vinegar and served with egg noodles and a pair of thin sausages. Vinegar and a little sugar give the lentils a sweet-sour edge. It began as food for the poor in Swabia, in southwestern Germany, where meat was too expensive for most families and lentils grew even on thin, poor soils. Lentils could also be stored through the winter, which made the dish a traditional winter meal. The noodles are Spätzle, a Swabian word meaning little sparrows. In 1725 the Württemberg physician Rosino Lentilio listed Knöpflein and Spazen among the foods made from flour. Cooks still scrape the soft dough off a wet wooden board straight into boiling water, and a Swabian rule of thumb sets the eggs at one per diner plus one. The sausages are Saitenwürstle, a kind of wiener that is hard to find in the US. Today the dish is a winter staple on the menus of traditional Swabian restaurants and in staff canteens and university cafeterias. Cook the lentils first, since they hold well, and make the spätzle while they simmer.