Strangolapreti

Strozzapreti are an elongated form of cavatelli, or hand-rolled pasta typical of the Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche and Umbria regions of Italy as well as in the state of San Marino. The name is also used for a baked cheese and vegetable dumpling, prepared in some regions of Italy and on the French island of Corsica. There are several legends to explain the name, primarily based on the anticlerical sentiment of the region. One is that gluttonous priests were so enthralled by the savory pasta that they ate too quickly and choked themselves. Another explanation involves the azdora ('housewife' in the Romagna dialect), who "chokes" the dough strips to make the strozzapreti. The azdora would express rage (perhaps triggered by the misery and difficulties of her life) and curse the local clergy, resulting in a pasta that could choke a priest. A third states that wives would customarily make the pasta for churchmen as partial payment for land rents (in Romagna, the Catholic Church had extensive land properties rented 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 mouths with it. The name surely reflects the diffuse anticlericalism of the people of Romagna and Tuscany.

Source: Wikipedia