Granny Irene used to make this dish, of her family’s Austro-Hungarian origin, in every season and for every circumstance. The peculiarity was that she formed dumplings the size of tennis balls, making it very difficult for diners to consume them without the use of a knife.
A vivid memory is that of an Easter lunch in which an uncle ate the knödel with such relish that he sucked up the broth with jubilant noise. We children couldn’t laugh at it – perhaps this is why it remained so etched in my memory.

Granny Irene Knödel (Bread dumplings)

  • Preparation time: 40 minutes
  • Ingredients for 4-6 servings
  • Difficulty: Easy recipe

  • Ingredients
  • 1 l or 3 cups of meat broth
  • 400 g or 13 oz of stale hard bread
  • 1 onion
  • 100 g or 4 oz of speck
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
  • 200 ml or 2/3 cup of milk
  • Finely chopped parsley and chives to taste
  • Salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste
  • A knob of butter
  • Grated parmesan to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Cut the speck into cubes.
  3. Finely chop the onion.
  4. In a pan, sauté the onion in butter for about ten minutes over a very low heat until transparent. In the last few minutes, add the speck to make it soften only. Let it cool down.
  5. Meanwhile, cut the bread into cubes and put them in a bowl.
  6. Add the milk, eggs, onion, speck, and parsley. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir until it is blended. Let the dough rest for half an hour.
  7. Take a little bit of dough with a spoon and form small balls of 1 31⁄32 inch each.
  8. In a saucepan, bring some meat stock to the boil and cook the dumplings for about ten minutes.
  9. Serve hot with ladles of broth and grated parmesan.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • Stale bread must be of good quality.
  • If the dough is too wet, add some breadcrumbs
  • Never boil the dumplings in the serving broth – otherwise it becomes cloudy. I always cook them separately and then serve it with the clarified broth.
  • For the meat broth recipe, see here.

 Family home in Admont. From left the Granny’s brother Bepi and her father Guido