strozzapreti

Thick tubular pasta twists, made from flour or bread, spinach and eggs (strozzapreti verdi) and served with melted butter in the north. Elsewhere made of flour, generally a mixed assortment of flours, cut into squares and twisted by hand. Semolina is often used to make a southern Italian version, stranglolapreti or strangugliaprevi.

The apocryphal story goes that in the old days priests could show up at a house or restaurant and dine for free, and the shape and name come for the wish to choke the freeloader with thick pieces of pasta designed to lodge in the throat, to avoid having to serve a secondo of meat or fish.