Here in Tübingen, one of the local Schwabian specialties that appears on almost all of the menus is something called Maultaschen. Maultaschen are large filled squares of pasta which look like gigantic, overly plump ravioli. Typically these are filled with either minced meat or a veggie and cheese mixture; they are usually served with a light gravy over top, or else floating in a simple broth as a soup.

While I love pasta in most shapes and forms, I have to say that so far the Maultaschen haven’t really won me over in their most typical forms. I guess I like a balance in interesting flavors that come from the pasta, the sauce and the filling taken together. The Maultaschen are mostly about the meat filling, with little flavor coming from the pasta part or the sauce part. Of course, I am spoiled having lived in Italy for 3 years, so my pasta expectations are a bit high.

BTW, there’s a folk story about the original of the Maultaschen dish that provides a reason for them being more about the meat than the pasta. The German word taschen means “pocket” or “bag”; Maultaschen literally means a “meat-filled pocket.” The story goes that during Lent, it was always forbidden to eat meat. However, the people in Schwabia loved their meat so much that they didn’t want to give it up. So, somebody got the idea that if they made pockets out of pasta, they could hide the meat in these pasta pockets, and then God wouldn’t notice they were eating meat during Lent. Or at least the local priest wouldn’t notice, I guess.

Cute story, but I digress.

A restaurant down the street from our apartment serves Schwabian (and other German) food, and they so they have the usual forms of Maultaschen on the menu, either in the broth or in the gravy. But the first time we went there, we noticed they also had another type listed, In Ei Gebratene Maultaschen, literally “Roasted Maultaschen in Egg”. Hmm, what could that mean? The menu also said these Maultaschen were filled with sausage, which is a departure from the usual mystery (to me) meat filling. Intriguing. We decided we had to try it.

When the dish arrived, it turned out that the Maultaschen were indeed filled with sausage, but then they had been sliced into thin strips, which were then fried in a pan with a scrambled egg mixture, forming a sort of omelet with Maultaschen strips in it.

Somehow, the overall consistency reminded me of a Monte Cristo sandwich. Have you ever had one of those? When I was little, and staying overnight with my Grandmother, she would sometimes as a treat make me a Monte Cristo sandwich for lunch: thick slides of bread, with a ham and cheese filling, the whole thing dipped in egg and then fried in a pan like a grilled cheese sandwich. Sort of like an egg-wrapped grilled cheese sandwich, I guess – mmmm, those were good! Anyway, the Maultaschen omelet dish was really nothing like that, I guess, but the pasta parts of the Maultaschen that were embedded in the omelet brought that to mind. Sort of.

In any case, the In Ei Gebratene Maultaschen dish was delicious. It’s definitely my current favorite Schwabian dish of the ones we’ve tried so far. And it’s not the Maultaschen dish that I’ve seen mentioned in any of the guidebooks I’ve looked. So that’s today’s Schwabian food tip from your local expert. If i can really deem myself an expert about anything Schwabian after only a little more than 40 days in Tuebingen. 😉