strozzapreti

strangle some dough to make a hearty pasta that will support a chunky vegetable sauce or one made with sausage.

i read a recent review of the "encyclopedia of pasta" in the new york times that got me interested in making strozzapreti, a short-tubular pasta that's hearty enough to support a meat or pork based sauce. by coincidence, last sunday when i asked jim what he wanted for dinner he gave me a plead for pasta with sausage . . . really, sometimes it just seems like my reason for being here is to answer his prayers for dinner.

          strozzapreti translates from italian to mean "priest choker" . . . leave it to the italians to drum-up-the-drama even when it comes to naming their food. one legend behind the name is that gluttonous priests with voracious appetites for the heavenly dish, ate too quickly and choked on it. another is that the housewives who "choked" the pasta strips to make the strozzapreti, were miserable with the difficulties of life and became angry enough to strangle a priest. i must confess, i too have thought about strangling a priest or two on those hungry sunday mornings of my youth when a sermon went on and on, and kept us from getting to the breakfast table.

to make strozzapreti, roll the pasta dough into a paper-thin sheet and then score it with a knife into 1" wide strips that are about 3-4" long.

wrap the strips around a skewer and get out your frustrations by choking them to make irregular shaped tubes.

serve strozzapreti with a chunky vegetable sauce, or one made with meat or sausages. jim said the dish i served him with sausage, peppers and olives was simply sinful.