Strozzapreti

Strozzapreti is a delightful hand-rolled pasta originating from various regions in Italy, including Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, and Umbria, as well as the microstate of San Marino. Interestingly, the name "Strozzapreti" also refers to a baked cheese and vegetable dumpling found in some Italian regions and on the French island of Corsica. The name itself is steeped in colorful legends, often reflecting the anticlerical sentiments prevalent in these areas.

One popular legend suggests that priests loved this pasta so much they would eat it rapidly and end up choking. Another tale involves the "azdora" a woman who, while shaping the dough strips, would express her frustration toward the clergy, resulting in pasta that could metaphorically "choke a priest." There's also a story that wives would prepare this pasta for churchmen as partial payment for land rents, much to the frustration of their husbands, who wished the priests would choke on it. These stories highlight the anticlerical feelings that were common in Romagna and Tuscany.

The process of making Strozzapreti involves rolling out dough into thick sheets, cutting them into strips, and then twisting or rolling them between the palms before pinching them into pieces. Unlike uniform pasta shapes such as spaghetti or macaroni, Strozzapreti pieces come in various sizes and shapes. In Romagna, the traditional dough recipe includes wheat flour, water, salt, and optionally eggs. In Emilia, it consists of flour, water, Parmesan cheese, and egg whites.

In Tuscany, there's a similar pasta called Pici. It's made by hand-rolling thick tubes of dough, which are cut but left untwisted, resembling ropes. This offers another twist on the concept of "strangling" pasta. Meanwhile, in Corsica, Strozzapreti (known in Corsican as "sturzapreti") refers to large gnocchi made from cheese and vegetables. These are rolled into balls with spinach or chard, mixed with brocciu cheese, and baked in the oven. These balls are large enough that if someone tried to eat one whole, they might indeed choke, living up to their name.