Strangozzi Spoletina style, a traditional Umbrian recipe

Let's discover the recipe for the Umbrian first course par excellence, strangozzi alla spoletina, much more than a tomato pasta.

The cuisine of the Umbrian region is waiting to be discovered. Among the various delicacies, however, there is one that absolutely deserves to be tried. We are talking about Spoleto strangozzi, a first course with simple flavors capable of conquering everyone at the first taste.

At first glance this typical Umbrian dish might seem like simple pasta with tomato sauce but you want the pasta shape , you want the tasty sauce , they make it take that extra leap in quality. Stringozzi, also known as strangozzi or strozzapreti , are a long format prepared solely with flour (00 and semolina) and water. Let's see together how to prepare this Umbrian pasta.

How to prepare the recipe for strangozzi alla spoletina

1. First, focus on the pasta . Combine the two flours, a spoonful of oil and the water in a bowl and start kneading first with a spoon and then by hand, transferring everything onto the pastry board. If you have good manual skills you can also make the fountain directly with the flours.
2. Once you have obtained a smooth and homogeneous dough, let it rest under an inverted bowl for about 30 minutes. This way you will struggle much less to spread it.
3. In the meantime, prepare the sauce . Heat the oil with the garlic cloves in a pan. Then add the tomatoes cut into 8, a pinch of salt and ground pepper and leave to cook for 30 minutes . You should get a thick sauce. If you want, you can use the same weight of peeled tomatoes.
4. Now roll out the dough, using some flour, until it is 2 mm thick , double the thickness of classic tagliatelle.
5. Then roll it up on itself and cut it into slices of about half a centimeter . There is no common line in this so you can choose any width you like.
6. Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water for 3-4 minutes , drain and sauté in the pan with the tomato-based sauce, flavoring with freshly chopped parsley.

In this video you can get a better idea of ​​the steps, the thickness of the dough and how to cut it without effort.

We remain in the beautiful Umbria region to also try another typical dish, umbricelli . Also in this case, a rustic and thick fresh pasta without eggs, perfect for accommodating even the richest sauces.

Conservation

This dish will keep in the refrigerator for up to a couple of days . Since it is fresh pasta, when you go to heat it it is advisable to add a drizzle of oil.

Origin and history

Strangozzi, stringozzi, strengozzi : the country you go to, the name you find. However, the pasta format is always the same without eggs and with a shape similar to tagliolini. They differ from umbricelli in shape and mixture of flours. In fact, umbricelli are more similar to large spaghetti while these, as mentioned above, are more similar to tagliolini . Although there is no common line, usually 0 flour is used for umbricelli while for strangozzi a mixture of 0 flour and re-milled semolina . According to a Spoleto saying, stringozzi must be " nerte de pasta e fine de cortello" .

A legend traces the origin of the name to the time when the region hosted the papal palace. The anticlericals used to strangle priests in the streets of the city using leather shoelaces. From the union of the two terms, string and goiter , this new term is born.

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Homemade umbricelli: the typical recipe