Strozzapreti Romagnoli

Not yet written for this entry.

Strozzapreti — 'priest stranglers' — are a hand-rolled eggless pasta from Romagna, made with flour and water alone (sometimes with the addition of a small amount of spinach or stale bread soaked in milk). The name, shared with similar shapes across central Italy, allegedly refers to the priests' habit of accepting pasta as tithe from their parishioners and eating so greedily that they choked. The Romagnol version is formed by taking a small piece of dough and rolling it between the palms or against the board to create an elongated, twisted shape roughly 5-8cm long, resembling a rolled towel or rope with a slight twist. Without eggs, strozzapreti have a chewier, more rustic texture than egg pastas — they bite back, which is their virtue. The surface is rougher, gripping sauce aggressively. Traditional pairings include a simple tomato sauce with garlic and basil, a ragù of sausage, or a sauce of cherry tomatoes and rocket (rucola). Strozzapreti belong to the cucina povera strand of Emilian cooking — the food of people who could not afford eggs for every meal — but in the hands of a skilled cook, they demonstrate that limitation breeds technique. The rolling and twisting motion must be practised: too much pressure produces flat ribbons, too little produces round worms. The perfect strozzapreto has a slightly flattened, twisted form that creates channels for sauce to nestle in.

Not yet written for this entry.