Schabziger Spaghetti
I recently got stuck in a Wikipedia black hole, checking out the list of the World’s Oldest Companies (it’s worth a deep dive). It was there that I came across one of my favourite Swiss cheeses, Schabziger. The company, Geska, wasn’t even one of the hundred oldest, or Switzerland’s oldest (that’s the Gasthof Sternen in Kloster Wettingen), but with a founding date in 1463, it still has been in existence for over 500 years.
Not that this (deliberately) green cheese from canton Glarus is everybody’s cup of tea.
It’s dry and crumbly—made to be mixed in or sprinkled atop, rather that eaten alone—and it’s flavoured with blue fenugreek. The taste is polarizing, with some loving, and other hating the aromatic flavour.
For more on Schabziger’s fascinating history—swords! monks! the Crusades!—see my post here.
I’m always looking for new ways to use Schabziger, and here I have a super easy and satisfying pasta dish. Simply cook up some spaghetti (or other pasta), then make a sauce with Schabziger, spinach and ricotta cheese.
300 g spinach (fresh or frozen)
500 g ricotta
30 g Schabziger, grated
nutmeg, salt and pepper
500 g spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions.
In a medium pot, add the spinach and a splash of water. Cook over medium heat until the spinach is wilted or defrosted.
Stir the ricotta into the warm spinach.
Crumble the schabziger into the spinach and ricotta and mix well. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Spoon over cooked spaghetti, and grate a little more Schabziger over top.
You can get cones of Schabziger in the refrigerated section of most Swiss grocery stores (even our tiny Dorfladen stocks it), as well as Zibu (Schabziger mixed with butter) and Glarner Grüessli (a spread for bread and crackers). It is also exported to the States and beyond, sometimes under the name Sap Sago.
