STROZZAPRETI (ROMAGNOLI)
Region: Emilia-Romagna.
It’s made with water and a mixture of 00 and semolina flour. The shape is loosely twisted and of medium length. Strozzapreti is actually a funny name because it’s a compound word (strozza and preti) that literally means chokepriests. The etymology is debated. According to the linguistic theory, strozza and preti come from two Greek verbs, straggàlao and prepto. They mean to roll and to hollow out respectively. That makes sense, as they refer to the technique of making strozzapreti. However, it’s not nearly as fascinating as the next theory, or myth I should say. Legend has it that in the Middle Ages, in what is now Emilia-Romagna, priests used to confiscate eggs. The local women resented this, so they would offer the priests homemade pasta in the hope they would choke on it. Which theory do you support? I find the second story too amusing not to believe😆.
PICI
Region: Tuscany.
Pici is a staple food in Tuscany. It’s made with 00 flour and water and cut into long, thick cylinders. The most traditional dish is Pici all’aglione; aglione literally means big garlic. The recipe calls for a sauce made with tomatoes, aglione cloves and chilli peppers. Although aglione looks like a big bulb of garlic, it’s technically a variety of leek. According to the official website, aglione has a rounder flavour profile than garlic.
MALTAGLIATI
Region: Tuscany, Lazio, Abbruzzo and probably Marche and Umbria too.
I use maltagliati as an umbrella term. Each region has its own name, shape and recipe. The most representative version is made with water and semolina flour and cut into thin, square shapes. Maltagliati goes well with soups. Try it with bean soup or chickpea soup.
STRANGOZZI
Region: Umbria, Marche, Abbruzzo, southern Lazio.
The dough is made with water, olive oil and a mixture of 00 and semolina flour. It’s shaped into long, thin strips. Depending on the size of the strips, strangozzi can either resemble fettucine or pappardelle. In Umbria, strangozzi is traditionally served with local black truffles, porcini mushrooms and asparagus. Indeed, Umbria is famous throughout the world for its fine black truffles. Alternatively, it can be served with tomato sauce. If you understand Italian, you might’ve picked up on the name. Yes, strangozzi probably comes from strozzapreti.
To be continued...
Headline image by andersjilden on Unsplash
Poor priests. The first theory makes more sense to me. Why would priests be confiscating eggs? I suppose they might do it during Lent if people were cooking with them, but even that sounds unlikely.
Dripdrip, we're talking about the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. Emilia-Romagna was officially part of the Papacy State. Even if it's not true, this myth is still a proof of anti-catholicism feelings in Italy.
QUESTION: What is "OO"? (Several times you mention this, but something seems missing.)
@Simone- I thought we must be. There are lots of weird stories about the Middle Ages. In this country we usually discover that they were invented by the Victorians. I'm fascinated by the Middle Ages and I'd like to learn more about what was going on in Italy then.
The story about STROZZAPRETI (ROMAGNOLI) in the medieval period is fascinating to know. It's very interesting to learn pasta history or background as well. Thank you for sharing.
Ciao Simo, Vado in Italia tra due settimane, più precisamente in Toscana. Che cosa mi consigli di mangiare li?
Linda, solo per te, ti preparo un post sulla Toscana. Per caso sei vegetariana o vegana?
@Dripdrip I'm glad to hear that I've inspired you to learn more about Italian history.
@T-Newfields You're right. I should've said what it is. It's not 00, but 00 flour, also known as double-zero flour. It's made from soft wheat and is the most refined type of flour you can find in Italy. I think the English equivalent is all purpose flour. However, I'm not introducing anything new. According to Google Ngram, the term 00 flour is much more common than all purpose flour in British English and slightly more common in American English.
British: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=00+flour%2Call+purpose+flour&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false
American: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=00+flour%2Call+purpose+flour&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-US&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false
@yumiyumayume Thanks for reading👍.
@Simone- Grazie mille!
@LindasLinguas Linda, ti ho chiesto se sei vegetariana o vegana, perché se lo sei, è inutile che ti consiglio piatti a base di carne o piatti che non mangeresti a priori. Non era per farmi gli affari tuoi. La carne è una parte fondamentale della cucina toscana.
Ah, scusa! No, non sono vegana o vegetariana. In generale mangio tutto 😊
Si però, non darmi il lei (scusi anzichè di scusa)😅.
@LindasLinguas Quanto tempo ho ancora a disposizione per pubblicare dei post sulla cucina toscana?
Vado in Toscana il 21 di agosto per una settimana 😊
Ok, ho già pubblicato due post 👍.
Vado in Toscana il 21 di agosto per una settimana / Parto per la Toscana il 21 di agosto e sto una settimana