Kaerntner Kasnudeln

Kasnudeln are the dish Carinthia is known for: a thin pasta dough folded around a filling of floury potato and Topfen, the local curd cheese, with chopped mint and sometimes chervil worked through it. The mint is what surprises people, because it is not a garnish but the flavour of the whole thing. The edge is closed by hand in a twisted crimp called Krendeln, a run of small pinches around the half-moon, and the pattern is a point of pride; there is an old line about not being fit to marry until you could do it. They are boiled and served plain with browned butter. Sweet versions filled with dried pears use the same shape.

What you actually see

• The crimped edge - the hand-pinched Krendel seal, done without a mould or a fork.
• Mint in the filling - the herb that separates them from every other dumpling in the Alps.
• Browned butter - the only dressing, poured over at the table.
• The sweet ones - the same pocket filled with dried pears, eaten as a course of its own.

When to go

Year-round, and common around the Carinthian lakes right through the summer season. Village festivals in the region make them in quantity and judge the crimping as much as the filling. They are made fresh in the morning in most places and can run out by evening, so they suit lunch better than a late meal.

Honest expectations

They are heavy: the filling is potato and cheese, and a full portion of six or eight defeats most people. Industrial frozen versions are widespread, with thick dough, no mint and very little taste. The mint itself puts some people off entirely. Outside Carinthia they are hard to find made properly.

Nearby

The Carinthian lakes and Klagenfurt are where they turn up most often.