About
This
Dish

Sweet Kniddelen with damsons and poppy seeds

This recipe is a fusion of Luxembourg and Serbian cuisine. I had been sent to Serbia by Esch 2022 to do a food project together with fellow European capital of culture Novi Sad 2022. The brief was to explore Serbian cuisine and then create a Serbian dish with a Luxembourgish touch.

On our first day in Novi Sad, I was presented to a table full of Serbian food, to understand the key dishes of Serbian cuisine. One of the dishes that intrigued me the most was a sweet pasta dish: tagliatelle with sweet poppy seeds. I was told it was a prominent childhood memory for most Serbs to eat poppy seed noodles.

I then thought that Kniddelen are Luxembourg’s answer to noodles. We love to eat them with bacon and apple sauce – so there is already a sweet element at play. At the markets in Novi Sad I realized that damson season had already started. In Luxembourg we love damsons (questchen) too. It was then that the dish formed in my mind: combining Luxembourgish kniddelen with a sweet creamy poppy seed sauce and roasted damsons (with a hint of cinnamon).

It is definitely an unusual dish, but the people in Novi Sad loved it! We ended up serving 60 portions at an event open to the public in Novi Sad, and I had many people come up to me to tell me how much they loved the combination. So, if you’re open-minded you should give it a go too!

September 19, 2022
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