Maria Speck's Barley Salad with Figs and Tarragon-Lemon Dressing

A couple of weeks ago I decided to have an end-of-summer dinner party with a group of friends. Last year, one of my neighbors crafted a gorgeous redwood patio table for me that can seat 10 and it's become the perfect gathering place for an evening of food and drink and good conversation.

By mid-week before the dinner, though, I realized I'd be up against it. Hot and humid August had morphed into equally sweltering weather in September. It  lifted briefly with a brush with cool air and even a touch of rain. But the forecast for my dinner party weekend had temperatures charging over 100 degrees. My menu, which included baking Melissa Clark's plum polenta upside down cake, had to be tossed in favor of something that gave simultaneous hints of the waning summer and imminent autumn, but without the kind of cooking that would have me sweltering in the kitchen and my guests recoiling from traditional cool-weather comfort food.

You'd think grilling would be a natural to get out of the kitchen, but would you want to be the person standing over the barbecue in, let's be generous and say 90-degree heat at 6 p.m.? I didn't think so. So, roast chicken it would be. Misery would be contained in the kitchen for just an hour or so. The rest would be easy and could be put together over a couple of days. A tomato, cucumber, and feta salad would say so long to summer, while a quinoa salad with fresh figs and toasted pine nuts would beckon fall. In fact, plead for fall. Dessert? Forget baking; I'd get in touch with my friend, the ace baker Rachel Caygill, who among other things makes ice cream sandwiches for places like Carnitas Snack Shack, and ask her if she had a spare dozen or so to spare. I'd get fruit and make a fruit platter to accompany them. Done.

Except that when I started perusing some cookbooks for ideas on ways to ignite the quinoa salad I came upon Maria Speck's recipe for Barley Salad with Figs and Tarragon-Lemon Dressing in her wonderful 2011 book Ancient Grains for Modern Meals.

Barley has more heft than quinoa and would be a welcome change in salad form from the cliche that is becoming quinoa (substitute the word quinoa with arugula and you know what I mean). Figs were already part of my game plan and I grow Mexican tarragon and lemons in my garden. She calls for dried figs in her recipe, which makes sense for other parts of the country and seasons other than late summer, but in San Diego, figs are now in high season and plentiful. I wanted to take advantage of that. Her recipe also calls for apples, but, remember those high temps? I was still in summer mode and opted against them and added the planned toasted pine nuts. It's these little changes that are part of the fun of making a recipe your own and I know Maria won't mind the alterations.

Well, Friday and Saturday temps broke records and soared to well over 100 degrees (my garden's last tomatoes literally cooked on the vine) but fortunately by Saturday evening the air was becoming comfortable and even balmy. The menu morphed into the perfect summer meal and the barley salad was a surprise hit (along with my friend Julie's refreshing Micheladas and Rachel's butterscotch ice cream sandwiches).

Barley, it turns out, is much more versatile than home cooks give it credit for. Yes, it's the perfect addition to make a winter soup truly hearty, but it is equally delicious as the basis for a whole grain salad. The large grains and chewy texture work well with a variety of fresh, crunchy vegetables, with nuts, and with fruit--dried or fresh. And for those of us with Type 2 diabetes, it's one of the best grains to consume because of its low glycemic index.

Here's my adaptation of Maria's recipe. You can add 1/2 cup chopped tangy apple, such as a Macintosh or Granny Smith. In the future, I'd also consider adding fresh Asian pears, champagne grapes, Maria's dried figs or other types of dried fruit to the salad and even other nuts (think toasted chopped pecans). As I said, make it your own.

Barley Salad with Figs and Tarragon-Lemon Dressing
Slightly adapted from Maria Speck in Ancient Grains for Modern Meals
(printable recipe)

Serves 4

Barley
2 cups water
1/4 cup pearl barley
1 (2-by-1-inch) strip of lemon zest (optional)
3 peppercorns
pinch of fine sea salt

Salad, and to Finish
1 lemon
5 fresh figs, sliced into 8 pieces
2 stalks diced celery
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion (about 4)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

Prepare the barley by combining all the barley ingredients in a 2-quart saucepan and bringing the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot, cooking until the barley is just tender--30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain any remaining liquid and transfer the barley to a large bowl to cool. Remove the zest and peppercorns. You can do this a day or even a few days in advance and keep the cooled cooked barley in the refrigerator until you make the salad. At that point, take it out of the fridge an hour or so before you make the salad to bring it to room temperature and then stir it up or break clumps up with your fingers to separate the grains.

To make the dressing, finely grate the zest of the lemon to get 2 teaspoons zest. Squeeze the lemon to get one or two tablespoons of juice. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, and honey. Season with the salt and pepper. Stir in 1 tablespoon each of the tarragon and parsley.

In a large bowl, add the barley, figs, celery, green onion, pine nuts, and fig slices. Mix well, then add dressing and toss to combine. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle. Toss again and sprinkle with the remaining herbs. Serve.

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Cook This Now! Okay, I Will!

New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark launches Cook This Now ($29.99, Hyperion), her 32nd cookbook, with White Bean Stew with Rosemary, Garlic, and Farro. After all, it's January and what's better to take comfort in when the weather is chilly than a hearty savory stew. You see, Cook This Now begins with the new year and takes us through each month with recipes that focus on what's in season and what's fresh and local.

Now, yes, I have several books with seasonal themes, but what I always enjoy about Melissa's recipes is that they tend to be simple and straightforward, yet strikingly innovative. I love that I can flip through the book, identify a recipe that sounds inviting and know that I can probably make it spontaneously because I have many of the ingredients already -- or have easy access to them. And, I love the unusual flavor combinations that turn a simple dish into something memorable.

For instance, last week I bought a beautiful firm head of kale at the Mira Mesa farmers market, contemplating making crispy chips out of it. But while I was turning the pages of Cook This Now I found her recipe for Raw Kale Salad with Anchovy Date Dressing in her October chapter. My kale chips suddenly morphed into salad because of that odd yet compelling marriage of anchovies and dates. It was something I'd never considered and immediately found irresistible. And, with Melissa's blessing, I topped it with a poached egg and fried shallots.

It's simple and takes just minutes to make, yet the flavors are deeply complex--the sweet unctuous dates go up against the salty, oily anchovies and, with the help of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, and zest of both lemon and orange, dissolve into a force that easily conquers bitter kale. The result is a delicious salad that sends tastes buds into overtime. And, with very little effort. Honestly, why would anyone buy bottled salad dressing when they could make this in no time at all...

The same can be said for another October dish I made, Cumin Seed Roasted Cauliflower with Salted Yogurt, Mint, and Pomegranate Seeds. This is a visually stunning dish, again made with little effort, but the seasonings -- the cumin roasting in olive oil with the florets, the sprinkling of perky mint from my garden and acidic pomegranate seeds -- turn it into a mouth party.

I also made one of her "bonus" recipes found in the back of the book, Roasted Eggplant with Basil Green Goddess Dressing. I'm a sucker for eggplant, but with Green Goddess Dressing? Made with basil?

I don't know how she came up with this combination of ingredients, but they work. Earthy eggplant loves sharp basil, but with creme fraiche and mayo the basil is mellowed a bit and creates a unique pairing that is perfect as a topping for any Middle Eastern flatbread.

Now, all I've talked about are vegetable dishes (and they seem to be the majority in the book), but there are a number of recipes made with proteins -- Vietnamese Grilled Steak, Shrimp Scampi with Pernod and Fennel Fronds, Spicy Three-Meat Chili (with a Honey Whole Wheat Corn Bread I'm itching to make), and her mom's Garlic and Thyme-Roasted Chicken Parts with Mustard Croutons. And, there are several desserts, including a wild-sounding riff on Mallomars (every New Yorker's favorite cookie) she calls Mallobars.

Melissa is a terrific storyteller, so her intros to each month and to her recipes are invariably charming and make you feel like you have an old friend with you in the kitchen. She also includes a handy section after most recipes that she calls  "What Else?" to offer tips for alternate ingredients or ways to change up the dish.

This is a book to dip into for new ideas to combine ingredients and to create satisfying meals in very little time throughout the year.

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Fall Fest: Cooking for One and My Mad Freezer Stash

Are you single? As in live alone, cook alone, and usually eat alone? This would be me. When coupled people talk about how they cook for one, they tend to be talking about the occasional evening when their significant other happens to be out of town or at a meeting. When I talk about cooking for one, I mean one -- day in and day out.

This is not a complaint. This is my life and I'm perfectly happy. However, cooking for one can be a challenge, starting with buying for one. So, when our Fall Fest 2010 Mad Stash theme came up this week I wasn't thinking about what fearless leader Margaret Roach intended--freezing, preserving, or drying in anticipation of getting through the dead of winter. I was thinking about what I do year round to save a little money, keep food from going bad (or eating too much of it at one sitting), or to be able to enjoy the kind of cooking typically done for a family--like making big pots of soup, or lasagna, or baking bread.

See, I live in San Diego, and while we certainly address seasonality, we have gorgeous produce year round. We don't need to "put away" for the winter. Maybe I don't have fresh local strawberries in January, but I have access to magnificent  apples, pears,  persimmons, and citrus. And, a container of smashed strawberries in the freezer left over from my summer strawberry freezer jam extravaganza (I have jars of the jam in the freezer, too). Did I buy too much Swiss chard last week? No problem. I'll just remove the ribs and put the leaves in the food processor with garlic, olive oil, honey, and parmesan cheese to make Swiss chard pesto. And put that in the freezer for later.

Now, sometimes I get carried away at the farmers market and buy too much. Or my schedule changes and I end up with several unexpected evenings out. And my poor produce languishes in the fridge. If I can catch it in time, I can create something that turns veggies just this side of spoiled into something sublime--then freeze it.

This is what happened over the summer when I had zucchini, eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, leeks, and I forget what else. I got busy that week and it sat. Then I burned my right palm pretty severely making a tomato tarte tatin. My plans for cooking up all that produce were dashed. Until I called my mom. She came over the next day and the two of us had a wonderful afternoon in my kitchen making what I'm calling my "refrigerator sauce."

There's no real recipe here. What we did--and what I often do--is prep the veggies for roasting, which brings out the sugars in each. Use a good-sized non-stick baking sheet. I don't use foil for this because I want to scrape up the juices from the tomatoes and add them to the sauce. In this case, we cut eggplant, zucchini, onions, sweet peppers, and leeks into chunks. We halved the tomatoes and tossed in whole, peeled garlic cloves. We tossed the veggies in olive oil and sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper. The pans went into a 400-degree oven and roasted for about 20 minutes. (Just check on them periodically after the first 10 minutes. Some vegetables will cook faster than others and you should remove them from the oven so the rest can continue roasting.)

Once they're finished roasting, heat up a Dutch oven or heavy pot, add some olive oil and a little fresh, minced garlic, then all those now gorgeously browned pieces of vegetables to the pot--with the juices. Unless you have a ton of tomatoes, you might want to add some canned fire-roasted crushed tomatoes. Then add fresh herbs--basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, or whatever else you have on hand--along with salt and pepper. Let the mixture simmer for awhile (20 minutes or so). At this point, you can pull out your immersion blender and pulverize the vegetables until you have the texture you want. (No immersion blender? No worries--just let the mixture cool and transfer it to a blender or food processor.) Taste and adjust your seasonings. Let it simmer on low for another half hour to thicken and let the flavors come together. Remove from the heat and let cool. Then transfer to plastic storage containers to put in the freezer. Be sure to label the sauce, including the date you made it. I keep a cordless label maker in my kitchen so I don't get lazy about it. It's so frustrating to open the freezer and try to figure out what mystery foods you have and how long they've been in suspended animation.

So, how have I used the sauce? It obviously goes great with pasta. Melissa Clark recently wrote a terrific piece in the New York Times about whole wheat pasta and I bought her favorite: a package of Bionaturae organic whole wheat spaghetti. I'm with her. It has a wonderful texture and nutty flavor that I've become somewhat addicted to. It pairs well with hearty sauces and this refrigerator sauce is truly hearty--even without meat, although you could add ground beef to make a luscious ragu.

I also used the refrigerator sauce as the base for pizza. And, where did I get the dough? Yep, out of the freezer. See I make a terrific pizza dough but it's too much for one. So I divide it into quarters, roll them into balls, secure each ball tightly in plastic wrap, and then put them into a labeled freezer bag. Over the weekend, I pulled out a ball and let it defrost overnight in the refrigerator. It was fine for me to use the following day. It shaped nicely into a six-inch personal pizza, which I topped with the sauce, slices of Field Roast vegan Mexican Chipotle sausage (leftover from another story I researched), slices of garlic, and grated/cubed Piave Vecchio, a great fall cows milk cheese from the Italian Alps that I bought from Taste's Mary Palmer.

The pizza made for a great, easy lunch. After all, it's just a matter of heating the oven to 500 degrees, shaping the dough, adding the toppings, and baking for all of 10 minutes.

A great, healthy, meal for one.

So, what does "Mad Stash" mean to my Fall Fest colleagues?

Alison at Food2: Break Out the Stash
Kirsten at Food Network: Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
Liz at Healthy Eats: Mad Squash Stash
Michelle at Cooking Channel: Save Em' While You Can
Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Brandied Apple Butter
Nicole of Pinch My Salt: Spiced Pear Butter 
Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: On the Chest Freezer
Cate of Sweet Nicks: Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette 
 Margaret at A Way to Garden: Everything Into the Pot, Freezer, Cellar
Todd and Diane: Persimmon Overload, and Persimmon Fool Pudding 

Now It's Your Turn to Join Fall Fest 2010!
This collaborative effort won't be much fun without you! The more info we all give, the more we'll all enjoy fall's harvest. Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? You can contribute in various ways, big or small.

• Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. 
• Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog any upcoming Wednesday, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and then we're all cooking with some great ideas. Or go big: Publish entire posts of your own if you wish, and grab the big Fall Fest 2010 pumpkin badge above (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites). We'll also be tweeting using #fallfood as our hashtag. Here's the schedule:

Sept. 1: Sweet and Spicy Peppers
Sept. 8: Garlic
Sept. 15: White (or colorful “white”…but not sweet) Potatoes
Sept. 22: Spinach
Sept. 29: Apples
Oct. 6: Fall Salads
Oct. 13: Pumpkin and Winter Squash
Oct. 20: Pears
Oct. 27: “Mad Stash” (as in what you’re freezing/canning/drying, etc.)
Nov. 3: Root veggies
Nov. 10: Brassicas: incl. Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Cabbage or other
Nov. 17: Sweet Potatoes
Nov. 24: Bounty to Be Grateful For

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Summer Fest 2010: Week 5 -- Tomatoes

Finally! It's tomato week for Summer Fest 2010! And in San Diego it's only appropriate that we've kept this for last because until now this has been a weirdly overcast and chilly summer. Last week, the weather finally broke and we're in full-fledged schvitzy heat wave. Which means, of course, that tomatoes are finally ripening. Our gardens and the farmers markets are now filled with the gorgeous fruit (which actually is legally a vegetable, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling back in 1893 -- don't ask; it has to do with taxes of all things).

So, now we've got a bumper crop of tomatoes just like the rest of the country. The question is what to do with this bounty. In my kitchen, the biggest and ugliest of the heirlooms get sliced up,  then sprinkled with Tajin and olive oil, and eaten. They're the most delicious and deserve to be devoured in their most natural state.

Back in July, I was invited to join in a tomato picking and canning party at a friend's house. Michelle  has a stunning garden and went crazy planting tomatoes. Despite the funky weather, we got quite a haul (see the photo above), including this crazy green heirloom that looked like three conjoined tomatoes.

Michelle doted on that heirloom for much of the afternoon until we finally consigned it to a platter, in slices with salt, pepper, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.

In the meantime, I made a Tomato Tarte Tatin for our group from a Melissa Clark recipe I'd been wanting to try for a long time. You can find it here in her New York Times column. The vinegar, the kalamata olives, the caramelized red onions combined with fresh cherry tomatoes just off the vine? It's swoonable.

Just be very careful with the skillet you've had in that 425-degree oven. Instead of covering the blazing hot handle with a towel when it was pulled out of the oven and onto the stove, I instinctively reached for the naked handle to move the skillet and got quite a bad burn on my hand. It's fine now, but I'm just saying...

When it gets too hot to cook, my go-to summer recipe -- particularly for dinner parties -- is my mom's gazpacho. I've been making this for years. It's really a chopped garden in a bowl and easy to make. So easy and so quick, in fact, that I've now made it several times with the kids and some adults at Olivewood Gardens in our breakneck 25-minute classes. This, along with my corn tortillas with pressed flowers, has become something of an institution already. This is why:

And all it is is a whole variety of veggies, combined with broth, V8 juice, and a few other ingredients -- really whatever you have. For Olivewood Gardens, it means tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, peppers, garlic, green onions, radishes, and herbs -- all from their garden.

Evie's Chunky Gazpacho
Serves 8 – 10

5 - 8 large tomatoes, quartered
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
½ English cucumber, roughly chopped
1 or 2 red peppers, roughly chopped
6 – 8 scallions, roughly chopped
6 - 8 radishes, roughly chopped
½ medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
½ bunch parsley with major stems removed and/or 1 bunch cilantro
2 tbls lime juice
2-6 tbls red wine vinegar
A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
A few dashes of your favorite hot sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 regular-sized can beef broth
1 can low-salt V-8 juice
1 cup corn kernels (fresh, frozen or canned – if fresh is unavailable, I like the frozen roasted corn kernels from Trader Joe’s)
1 pound pre-cooked bay shrimp, lump crab or cooked chunks of chicken or pork
Sour cream or Mexican crema

Pull out the food processor and a very large bowl. Process each of the vegetables until the pieces are small -- but before they're pureed -- and add to the bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients, except for the proteins and dairy, which I keep on the table separately for guests to add as they wish. Refrigerate until cold and then adjust seasonings to taste. Top when serving with sour cream or Mexican crema. Serve with fresh tortillas or even hearty sourdough bread.

To make the flowered corn tortillas, simply prepare the masa according to the directions on the package (water, masa, and salt). Roll the dough into golf-ball sized balls. On your tortilla press, lay an edible flower (we've used nasturtiums, pansies, society garlic, and the flowers of herbs that bolted) right side down. Then put the dough ball on top of the flower and press.

Place the uncooked tortilla flower side up on a hot skillet. When the edges curl, flip it over and cook just a minute or so more. That's it. The kids love this. It looks cool and they were shocked that they could actually eat flowers!

So, let's see what the rest of the Summer Fest 2010 folks are cooking this week:

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: Heirloom Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust

Nicole at Pinch My Salt: What to do with slow-roasted tomatoes

Alison at Food2: Heirloom tomatoes

The FN Dish: Tyler's Ultimate Tomato Salads

Margaret at A Way to Garden: More than one way to ripen a tomato

Gilded Fork: Celebrating summer lusciousness with a tomato dossier and recipes

Diane and Todd at White on Rice Couple: Sun-dried tomatoes (actually made in the sun!)

Paige at The Sister Project: 3 substantial, healthy, vegetarian tomatoey main dishes

Liz at the Cooking Channel: Easy Tomato Tart

Kelly at Just a Taste: Tomato Jam

Alexis at Food Network UK: The seven deadly tomato sins

Michelle at Healthy Eats: Top 10 Things to Do With Tomatoes

Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Cherry Tomatoes and Maytag Blue Beignets

Alana of Eating From the Ground Up: Roasted Green Salsa

Tigress of Tigress in a Pickle: Over 50 Ways to Preserve Tomatoes in Jars

Judy of Divina Cucuina: Tomatoes the Italian Way

Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Savory Tomato Crumble

Now It's Your Turn!
This collaborative effort won't be much fun without you! The more info we all give, the more we'll all enjoy summer's harvest. Have a recipe or tip that fits any of our weekly themes? Starting with our posts of Wednesday, July 28, for five Wednesdays through 8/25 and possibly longer, you can contribute in various ways, big or small.

• Contribute a whole post, or a comment—whatever you wish. It’s meant to be fun, viral, fluid. No pressure, just delicious. The possibilities:
• Simply leave your tip or recipe or favorite links in the comments below a Summer Fest post on my blog any upcoming Wednesday, and then go visit my collaborators and do the same.

The cross-blog event idea works best when you leave your recipe or favorite links (whether to your own blog or someone else’s) at all the host blogs. That way, they are likely to be seen by the widest audience. Everyone benefits, and then we're all cooking with some great ideas. Or go big: Publish entire posts of your own if you wish, and grab the big red tomato Summer Fest 2010 badge above (illustrated by Matt of Mattbites). We'll also be tweeting using #summerfood as our hashtag. Here's the schedule:

• 7/28: cukesnzukes
• 8/4: corn
• 8/11: herbs, greens, and beans
• 8/18: stone fruit
• 8/25 tomatoes
• more to come if we all want it — stay tuned!

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One Weird Ingredient, A Delicious New Twist on Breakfast

If you're from Wisconsin, cheese curds are all too familiar. But, in San Diego? Well, not so much. You can find them now through Spring Hill Jersey Cheese's Rachel Peter. I was at the Little Italy farmers market last Saturday, where she has a stall, and bought a container of the garlic curds (she also sells plain and "Mike's Firehouse," a blend of jalapenos, red peppers, cilantro and parsley).

Cheese curds, of course, are small chunks of cheese solids, separated from the whey. Usually, they're salted, pressed into molds, aged and eventually become cheese. But, curds can be eaten in youth on their own. They're an unusual texture sensation, though. As people who have eaten them will tell you, they tend to squeak when you bite into them.

There are a host of ways you can use cheese curds. They can be fried, they can be sprinkled fresh on top of a salad. You could simply put them in a bowl and just nosh on them. But, as I discovered, they also melt beautifully.

I had one of those moments of staring into the refrigerator this morning in search of inspiration for breakfast and when I saw the container sitting on the bottom shelf, it occurred to me that I could melt them on slices of sourdough bread from Bread & Cie. I had some beautiful tomatoes, too. So, I brushed two slices of the bread with olive oil and toasted them briefly in the toaster oven so they wouldn't get soggy from the tomato slices. I added the sliced tomatoes, then cut up little pieces of the garlic curds and topped the tomatoes and bread. They went back into the toaster oven on the highest "toaster" temperature. Here's what I got.


The cheese didn't lose its flavor in the cooking, although it obviously lost its squeak. It melts like mozzarella, so it would, of course, be perfect as a pizza topping. I enjoyed this for breakfast, but it would be a great match with a salad or bowl of soup for lunch or dinner. One of those great, easy discoveries when you don't want to fuss much.

Another item to try from Spring Hill is the quark, an unripened cheese originally found in Central Eastern Europe, but with a texture similar to cream cheese or ricotta. Eat it straight up, spread it on bread, use it as a topping on banana bread or a slice of lemon cake. I have a small container of their vanilla bean quark, which I've found is simply wonderful as a dip for sliced apples or pears. It's very tangy and smooth. Rachel also sells lemon and garlic flavors.

Garlic? Well, why not. And, here's a recipe for a savory Quark Spatzle with Cheese I found on epicurious.com. It comes originally from East of Paris: The New Cuisines of Austria and the Danube by David Bouley, Mario Lohninger and Melissa Clark. The spatzle itself is made with quark. It calls for plain, but I would think garlic or even lemon would add a wonderful layer of flavor.

Want to make your own quark? It looks pretty easy, according to a recipe on Sally's Place.

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