Photos: Patrick Schwanz
Recipe & Text: Marc Wieberneit

I’m still laying in bed, tired, sleepy and yawning. Suddenly, a joyful feeling flows through me - today I’m going to eat my favourite dish. I’m not going to make it like I usually do however… A little different.

I often wake up wondering if this ingredient and that will work well together.

Making today’s recipe made it clear to me that it had become my favourite dish. A little bit crispy, juicy, seasoned, and a little sweet. We’re talking about maultaschen! It will be accompanied with a tomato mousse, a basil and bacon salad and roasted onions. The way in which this little dish came about is simple.

We’re talking about 2012, when we started up our own booth. Just like it always happens, you go out to buy some groceries, and soon after the fridge becomes more and more empty. Since, at that point, I had no motivation to go shopping, I used what I had: bacon, onions, maultaschen, tomato paste, cream, basil and pasta. And that’s how my favourite dish was born, fried maultaschen with bacon and onions in a tomato and cream sauce with pasta and basil. A real hearty dish, way too hearty. Today we’ll tackle the recipe and dial down on the heartiness. I hope you enjoy the pictures and have fun cooking.

Fried Maultaschen with Tomato Mousse, Basil Salad and Roasted Onions

(Marc’s favourite dish for 4 people)

For the pasta dough:

200g flour
1 egg yolk
1 egg
30ml olive oil
water
salt

For the roasted onions:

2 onions
paprika powder
flour
salt
vegetable oil for frying

For the basil salad:

1 bundle of basil
80g pine nuts
bacon
olive oil
salt
pepper

For the tomato mousse:

400g date tomatoes
2 shallots
white wine
butter
cream
salt
pepper

For the maultaschen:

200g ground pork
100g sausage meat
200g spinach
1 lemon
500ml beef stock
2 eggs
butter
2 onions
50ml cream
2 white buns from the day before
salt
pepper
nutmeg
6 chive stocks

Knead the pasta ingredients into a smooth dough and allow to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Peel the onions, finely chop and salt. Mix the flour with paprika powder. Bread the onions and fry in oil until golden-brown.

For the basil salad, remove the basil leaves from their stalks. Roast the pine nuts in a pan without oil until golden-brown. Sweat the bacon in a pan and slice into strips. Heat the oven to 160 degrees with both top and bottom heat. Place the bacon onto a baking tray between two pieces of baking paper and roast for 25 minutes until crispy. Finely chop the bacon and combine with the basil and pine nuts, adding sea salt, pepper and olive oil to taste.

For the tomato mousse, peel and dice the shallots and sweat in a pan with some olive oil. Wash the tomatoes and add them to the onions. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Douse with white wine and add cream. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Puree in a blender and pour the mixture through a sieve back into the pot. Heat, add a knob of butter, and whisk until foamy.

For the maultaschen, roll out the dough and coat in egg yolk. Sweat the onions and allow them to caramelise with the help of some sugar. Sweat the ground pork with the onions. Add the spinach and combine the cooled mixture with the sausage meat, cream and lemon. Pass everything through a meat grinder and add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Place into a spray bottle and spray over the dough. Roll up the pasta dough and slice into maultaschen. Bring beef stock to a boil and add the maultaschen. When they are fully cooked, they will rise to the surface. Heat butter in a pan and fry the maultaschen. Place the basil salad on a plate, diagonally slice the maultaschen and place them on the salad and dress with roasted onions and tomato mousse.