Strozzapreti with Spinach, Mushrooms and Sundried Tomato

On a recent business trip to Cincinnati, I ate at an American Italian Restaurant with my friend and colleague, M. We had an antipasti of Buffalo Mozzarella, with Tomatoes and Basil. So fresh! We shared a pasta (you know how American servings are, soooo huge!), which the restaurant called as "Country Style Pasta with Brocollini," with oven dried tomatoes, garlic and white wine sauce.

When the dish arrived, the pasta looked like short strips of dough which were rolled, so that it almost looked like coils with thin ends. Then I remembered watching a food show a few months back, showing two old Italian grandmothers, hand rolling these pasta, which are actually called strozzapreti. Strozzapreti literally means "Priest Strangler!" Why? Check out the interesting story behind the unique name here.

A few days later, on the way back to Singapore, I passed by New York City for a few days. On a visit to a Greenwich Village shop selling cheese, jams, foie gras and other deli items, lo and behold, I saw strozzapreti there and bought some!

Inspired by that dish at that American Italian restaurant, I've recreated my version of the dish here, Strozzapreti with Spinach, Mushrooms and Sundried Tomato, especially dedicated to my Pinoy friend M, now a Cincinnati resident.

This is a vegetarian version but you can easily turn it into a non-vegetarian one by adding some sausages. Or even bacon.



STROZZAPRETI WITH SPINACH, MUSHROOM & SUNDRIED TOMATO
Serves 6

500 grams of Strozzapreti
1 head of garlic, sliced thinly
1 onion, chopped into chunks
5 pieces of anchovy
1 cup of mushrooms, sliced
6 pieces of sun dried tomatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 cup of white wine or broth
1/2 teaspoon of chili flakes (adjust accordingly, depending on spice level that you want)
350 grams of sausage or bacon, chopped (if you want to make it non-veg)
2 cups spinach leaves (I used fresh ones)
1/2 cup of grated cheese (I used aged, white cheddar)


Procedure:

1.  Prepare a pot of water and lots of salt and heat to boiling. This is for cooking the pasta.

2. Saute onion in some oil in a pan.  When the onions are translucent, add the garlic. Once the garlic is slightly brown, add the anchovy. Keep sautéing until the anchovy disintegrates. Add the chili flakes and sauté a little bit more. (If you are using sausage, this would be the right time to add it. Brown the sausages before the next step.) Add the sliced mushroom and sundried tomatoes and mix well. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add the white wine and simmer on low fire.

3.  In the meantime, once the water in the other pot is boiling (a rolling boil), add the strozzapretti and cook until al dente. This took about 8 to 10 minutes for the ones I got.

4. Once the strozzapreti is al dente, turn up the heat of the sauce to make sure it's hot when you add the pasta. Add the spinach to the sauce and mix well.

5. Turn off the heat of the pasta pot. Start adding batches of the strozzapreti and mix well.

6.  If the pasta is a bit dry, add some of the pasta water. Keep mixing until the pasta evenly coated with the sauce. Add the cheese and mix evenly. This will thicken the sauce.

Transfer the pasta to a big bowl. Add a sprinkling of cheese on top. Serve with bread.

Actually, I have a confession to make....I really wanted to add sausages in the beginning, but forgot to to do that (senior moment!), so I ended up sautéing them separately in the same pan I used earlier, until they were brown. Then I added a little bit of white wine and some of the pasta water., to deglaze the pan. It looks a bit messy, but those brown bits are full of flavour!

Then to the same pan, I added the pasta I had already plated, mixing well and using some of the pasta water when it became a bit dry.  Then I served it again: