P
Italian · Marche
Strozzapreti con Salsiccia e Pecorino alla Marchigiana
Hand-rolled strozzapreti (literally 'priest-strangler') from the Marche, dressed with crumbled fresh pork sausage cooked in white wine and finished with aged Pecorino di Fossa — a cheese buried in pits for ripening that gives an intense, funky mineral quality. The dish is finished with a light pasta water emulsion and a generous black pepper grind.
I
The Market List
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For the strozzapreti
300 g
00 flour
plus extra for dusting
Your own market
150 ml
water
lukewarm
Your own market
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
For the sauce
400 g
fresh pork sausage
casings removed, meat crumbled finely
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
150 ml
Verdicchio di Matelica
dry, for deglazing
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2 tbsp
extra-virgin olive oil
Your own market
80 g
80 ml
pasta cooking water
reserved, starchy
Your own market
To finish
1 tsp
black pepper
coarsely ground, generous
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30 g
fine dry breadcrumbs (pangrattato)
fried in olive oil until golden
Your own market
Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.
II
The Method
1
Combine the flour and salt on a rough wooden board. Add the lukewarm water gradually and work the dough until it is smooth and firm. Rest it, covered, for 20 minutes. Pinch off small pieces, roll each into a thin rope roughly 8 cm long, then drag it across the rough board surface with the flat of your palm to create a twisted, textured exterior. Lay the finished strozzapreti on a flour-dusted tray and leave uncovered for 30 minutes: they are ready when the surface feels dry and slightly leathery to the touch.
2
Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over a medium-high flame. Add the crumbled sausage in a single layer and leave it undisturbed until a deep Maillard crust forms on the underside, then break and turn. Continue until every crumble is fully browned with no grey remaining — the colour here is the primary flavour driver and the dish lives or dies on this browning.
3
Pour in the Verdicchio di Matelica and scrape the pan floor. Reduce over a medium flame until the wine is halved in volume and the sharp alcohol smell has given way to a round, mellow fragrance.
4
Cook the strozzapreti in well-salted boiling water. Reserve 80 ml of the starchy cooking water before draining. Transfer the pasta to the pan with the sausage and toss over a low flame for one minute, adding pasta water as needed, until the liquid coats the strozzapreti in a thin, glossy film.
From the canon — Pasta cooking water contains dissolved starch (released from the pasta surface during boiling) at a concentration that increases with pasta-to-water ratio an… Pasta Water: Starch Concentration and Sauce Binding →
5
Remove the pan entirely from the heat. Add the grated Pecorino di Fossa and the remaining pasta water in one addition and toss continuously. The emulsion is complete when the sauce is uniformly creamy and clings to every surface of the pasta without pools of liquid or visible clumps of cheese.
6
Plate immediately. Finish with a generous grind of coarse black pepper and a scattering of pangrattato fried in olive oil. The dish is ready when the breadcrumbs retain an audible crunch against the creamy sauce.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Strozzapreti hand-rolled on an aged rough board from stone-milled 00 flour; sausage from a Marchigiani butcher using heritage-breed pork; Pecorino di Fossa sourced from a Sasso Corvaro affineur at peak ripening; Verdicchio di Matelica from a single-vineyard producer.
02
Estate — Hand-rolled pasta from good-quality 00 flour; fresh pork sausage from a trusted local butcher; genuine Pecorino di Fossa from a specialist importer; a named Verdicchio di Matelica DOC.
03
Market — Hand-rolled pasta made at home with standard 00 flour; supermarket fresh pork sausage of good quality; Pecorino di Fossa from a delicatessen counter; any dry Verdicchio DOC.
04
House — Hand-rolled pasta is still required — smooth commercial strozzapreti cannot hold the sauce. Where Pecorino di Fossa is unavailable, blend aged Pecorino Sardo with a small quantity of mild blue cheese to approximate the mineral funk. Use any dry Italian white in place of Verdicchio.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Freshly rolled strozzapreti feel dry and slightly leathery after 30 minutes of air-drying — they are ready to cook.
◇Sight. Every crumble of sausage carries a deep brown crust with no grey patches visible before deglazing.
◇Smell. The wine reduction is complete when raw alcohol has fully dissipated and the aroma is round and mellow.
◇Sight. The finished sauce is uniformly creamy, clings to the pasta's rough surface, and shows no pools of liquid or granular cheese.
◇Sound. Pangrattato retains an audible crunch against the soft, creamy sauce at the moment of serving.
◇Where it lives or dies. The sausage must be crumbled finely and cooked to a deep Maillard crust with no grey remaining before the wine is added — underdone sausage yields a pallid, flat sauce from which the dish cannot recover.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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