Also known as strangolapreti, strozzapreti are not as dangerous as their name may hint at. Far from being an anti-clerical instrument of torture (literally, the word means “priest stranglers”), they are a type of elongated, hand-rolled pasta typical of the regions of Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche.

Plenty of legends revolve around these little morsels of dough and their origins: one of the most popular says their deliciousness brought some hungry priest to eat them so quickly he choked on them. A brief extract of the 18th century Vocabolario Napoletano-Italiano mentions how that’s a kind of pasta “priests call nun stranglers and nuns call priest stranglers.” Less colorful, but probably closer to reality, is the interpretation that wants their name deriving from two Greek verbs straggalào, which means “to roll,” and prepto, “to hollow.” The two actions are, in fact, those necessary to make these traditional Italian pasta shape.