As promised on my blog, here I am with “The strangozzi alla Spoletina“, my favourite spaghetti, very easy to prepare if you are in hurry using normal spaghetti.

Strangozzi alla Spoletina are a typical Umbrian first course, of hunble origins, to be made with simple and genuine ingredients. The strangozzi (also called stringozzi or strozzapreti) are homemade fettuccine, made with a dough without eggs, made with semolina flour, 00 flour, oil and water. The strangozzi alla spoletina are really simple to prepare: just a few tricks to get a good fresh homemade pasta, topped with a simple tomato sauce and a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley.

Ingredients for 500 gr pasta:

– flour 00 125 gr

– durum wheat flour 125 gr

– cold water 130 gr

– Extra virgin olive oil 1 table spoon

Ingredients for the sauce:

– 600 gr of ripe peeled tomatoes

– 2 cloves of garlic

– black pepper as you like or chili

– parsley a good bunch (key ingredient)

Curiosity:

The strangozzi are a pasta format typical of the Folignate-Spoletino district, and their name seems to derive from the word “string“, since the pasta is very similar to the leather laces of the shoes of the past. They are also called “strozzapreti o strangolapreti”, as the anti-clerical rioters strangled, at the time of the Papal State, the ecclesiastics of passage with the strings of shoes, similar to this type of pasta.

Preparation of the dough:

in a bowl put the flour 00 and the flour of semolina, then mix well and transfer everything on a pastry board. Form the classic fountain with the hole in the center, add the water, a little at a time, and start kneading.

When the ingredients begin to blend, add the oil and continue to knead until you get a very smooth and soft mixture, to which you will give the shape of a ball. Now wrap the dough with the film and let it rest for 10-15 minutes, so that it becomes very elastic.

Preparation of the sauce:

take the tomatoes, wash them and cut them into quarters. In a non-stick pan, brown 2 cloves of garlic with 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil; as soon as garlic is browned (be sure not to burn!!!), remove it and add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper (or chilli if you prefer) then cook for about 30 minutes over a gentle heat, or until the sauce has obtained a fairly thick consistency. Just before the sauce is ready, boil plenty of salted water in a large pot

and, in the meantime, start to work the dough on a lightly floured surface.

With a rolling pin roll out a sheet of thickness of 2 mm (about twice the thickness of the common tagliatelle), flour it a little on the surface, and roll it up on itself Cut the roll so obtained into slices about 1cm thick, which you will open and separate, making long “flattened spaghettoni”. Lightly flour the strangozzi so obtained and cook them in boiling water for a few minutes.

When they are al dente, drain them and add them to the sauce. Sauté for a couple of minutes in the pan, then add plenty of chopped parsley.

Your strancozzi alla spoletina are ready: serve them warm and if you prefer it, you can add directly on the plates, some good Pecorino from Norcia or Parmigiano Reggiano. Buon appetito! (Source: Giallo Zafferano)

…. and a Spoleto lady who taught me how to do it when I was a child.