Strozzapreti

One of the things I love most about the Italian language is its descriptive words. Italians love to call things just as they see them.

I had never heard of strozzapreti before. It is a pasta noodle that is usually home made and not available in commercial format in my area. But I accidentally stumbled upon it when researching historical Italian recipes. And I've since seen a recipe featured on a popular Italian/Canadian television program.

They are called strozzapreti because the noodle was made by a group of nuns in a monastery in the Tuscany/Romagna region who claimed they pasta could choke a priest - strozzapreti. The noodle resembles a rolled towel and is similar to penne or fusili.

The legend of strozzapreti is that gluttonous priests were so passionate by the savory pasta that they wolfed the noodles down too quickly and choked themselves, sometimes to death.

Another legend refers to the actual making of the pasta - a housewife who actually "chokes" the dough strips in a fit of rage enough to choke a priest.

And yet another legend goes that housewives made the pasta for priests as partial payment for land rents (In the Romagna region, the Catholic Church rented extensive land tracts to farmers), and their husbands would be angered enough by the venal priests eating their wives' food to wish the priests would choke as they stuffed their mouth with it.

Regardless of the which legend is true, the name reflects a little resentment against the priests.