Its very name – “Tschutsch” – reflects its origins as a typical dish originating in South Tyrol’s south. Find out more here!

The (almost) forgotten oven-baked dish from South Tyrol’s south

It’s an almost forgotten oven-baked dish: “Tschutsch” – sometimes sweet, sometimes savoury – tells of times when peasants had to use the simplest ingredients to conjure up nourishing food for numerous hungry mouths.
Using your good judgment and a hot wood-fired stove or oven, just a few secret (and, after reading this, not so secret) ingredients can be used to create a dish that is not only simple to make, but also a delight for gourmets. The basic dough has a consistency between that for pancakes and that for pasta. There are various recipes for “Tschutsch”, such as with spinach, potatoes, rice or a sweet version with apples.



A recipe for success
The best way to share my enthusiasm for “Tschutsch” is to make one for yourself!

Ingredients for a potato Tschutsch for four people:

For the dough:

approx. 500 g wheat flour
approx. 600 ml full-cream milk
2 eggs
salt

casserole dish
sunflower oil or other heatable oil


For the filling:

200 g sautéed speck cubes (alternatively use finely chopped, sautéed leeks)
a little olive oil for frying
approx. 1 kilo of raw, grated potatoes
nutmeg, salt and pepper


Preparation:
Mix the wheat flour, milk and eggs to a smooth dough and season with salt. Peel and grate the potatoes, squeeze the liquid out of the grated potatoes, then season with the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix the fried speck cubes (or chopped leeks) into the potatoes. If desired, you can increase the quantity of potatoes, reduce the amount of milk and add a little flour by the spoonful as a binding agent. The Tschutsch will then look a little like potato fritters.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan oven). Grease the casserole dish generously with the heatable oil (including the edges) and warm in the oven for a few minutes. Mix the potatoes evenly into the batter. If the batter seems too runny, add some more flour: it should be less runny than pancake batter but not as firm as pasta dough. Now pour the mixture into the heated dish.
Leave the Tschutsch in the oven until it puffs up and is baked a golden-brown colour (50-60 minutes). Pricking the Tschutsch with a fork or similar is also a reliable test.

A little tip from the Tschutsch experts of South Tyrol’s south:
it tastes even better with a bean, beetroot or tomato salad! Simply serve the salad with the salad dressing next to or directly on top of the Tschutsch.

Enjoy!

Yours from the heart, Sabine