Hey, did anyone else forget for a hot second that Aldi hails from Germany? Well, the budget supermarket chain is honoring its roots this March with a new line of authentic German goodies, many of which are hard to find anywhere else in the U.S. The collection includes strudels, doppel keks, spritz cookies and bratwurst.
But our favorite goodie is the Deutsche Küche Cheesy Egg Spaetzle. Huh? Spaetzle is one of Germany's finest comfort foods: egg noodles drenched in a rich and creamy sauce. But these aren’t the standard egg noodles you’re used to—they're often called tiny little dumplings because of their light and chewy texture. Any number of tasty ingredients can be mixed into the sauce, from mushrooms to a boatload of cheese.
Aldi's own version is sold in the freezer aisle. You dump it into a pot of water, bring everything to a boil and simmer for about 12 minutes until you achieve silky results. (Why yes, this is a very similar process to whipping up mac and cheese. And Aldi's cheesy version does taste an awful lot like mac and cheese—though its airy noodles don’t really weigh you down. It’s mac and cheese all grown up, if you will.) It seems fitting that "spaetzle" actually translates to "little sparrow," the elegant shape of the tiny noodles.
If for some reason you get sick of cheese, you can also pick up onion and mushroom spaetzle in Aldi's freezer aisle. Available on March 20, it's priced at just $1.70 for a 5.3-ounce package. And that, fine friends, is possibly even cheaper than our go-to mac and cheese.
