loading . . . Strangolapreti alla Trentina Trento is the capital of the autonomous province of the same name and of the autonomous region of Trentino-South Tyrol in northern Italy. We live in Munich, so not very far away. The city lies nestled in the Adige Valley and, coming from the north, is usually reached via the Brenner Pass, which has been one of the most important connections across the Alps for thousands of years. Trento is not very large and today has just under 120,000 inhabitants, but it has almost always been a very important bishopric, hosting the Council of Trento (1545–1563) in the 16th century, which initiated the Counter-Reformation and profoundly changed the Catholic Church.
Just a few kilometres to the south lies Rovereto, an even smaller and quieter town. During the First World War, it was the front line between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Today, the monumental peace bell ‘Campana dei Caduti’ on Colle di Miravalle commemorates the victims. It was cast partly from the metal of cannons belonging to the nations involved in the war.
These small towns are worth visiting for their museums alone, which are magnificent. We name here the Diocesan Museum and the modern MUSE in Trento, as well as the architecturally sensational Mart (Italy’s most important museum of contemporary art!) and the Casa d’Arte Futurista Depero in Rovereto. All of them are well worth a visit.
But this is about cooking, and we’re bringing back a recipe for ‘Strangolapreti alla Trentina’ from our trip. Literally translated, strangolapreti means ‘priest strangler’. The stories behind this name are all speculation, so we won’t repeat them here.
Strangolapreti are a type of gnocchi that consist mainly of spinach (or should do). In Trentino, only one cheese is used for this dish, namely Trentingrana – a delicious cheese of the Grana Padano variety. And we brought that with us too.
In Trentino, the cuisine is Alpine, just like in the north of the mountains. We have ‘Knödel’ in Bavaria and Austria, and ‘Canederli’ in northern Italy. But strangolapreti are slightly different and should definitely not have the consistency of dumplings. There are many recipes in which they are prepared with twice as much bread as spinach. We strongly advise against this.
The best strangolapreti are made with as much spinach as possible. This doesn’t make things any easier, but it doesn’t make them overly complicated either.
The spinach is washed and then blanched in boiling salted water, i.e. cooked for just 1 minute, then immediately poured through a sieve and cooled with cold water to stop the cooking process. Afterwards, the water must be thoroughly squeezed out of the spinach with your hands. **This is very important** , otherwise the rest of the process will not work.
White bread is cut into small cubes and covered with a little milk to soften it. You can use stale bread without the crust; we usually use slices of toast, which we also remove the crust from.
In a large bowl, mix together more milk, the blanched spinach and a little olive oil with salt, freshly ground black pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
Chop everything thoroughly, preferably using a hand blender. At this point, you can taste the mixture and season it further as desired. Then add egg and soaked bread and stir both thoroughly in.
The mixture is thickened further with breadcrumbs and Trentingrana (or Grana Padano), which adds a lot of umami.
This is now quite a thick mass, but by no means firm, and that’s how it should be, because otherwise you would be making dumplings, as mentioned above.
Finally, stir in a little flour.
Now proceed as follows: Spread out a clean kitchen towel, as thick as possible, and dust it with flour. Then use a large tablespoon to form thick dumplings from the mixture and place them on the towel, leaving space between them.
Leave them to rest for at least 10 minutes. During this time, the underside of the dumplings will dry out a little, while the flour prevents them from sticking to the cloth. Then dust the tops with a little flour and flip them over using the tablespoon.
After another 10 minutes, the strangolapreti are ready to be cooked. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salt it as you would for pasta and carefully add the strangolapreti one by one with the spoon. Do not add too many at once, as they should not stick together. The temperature must be adjusted so that the water no longer boils; the strangolapreti must simmer just below boiling point, like Knödel or canederli. As they cook, they rise to the surface. After 10 minutes, during which time they should be turned once, they are cooked and can be removed from the pot. We place them on a clean cloth again to absorb the excess water.
These steps allow enough time to melt butter in a pan over medium heat and flavour it with sage leaves to taste.
The strangolapreti are coated with this butter, and we also serve the gently roasted sage leaves with them. More Trentingrana is grated over the top according to personal taste.
Any leftover strangolapreti can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, cut into thick slices, fried in butter until crispy and enjoyed with a salad, for example. Some people are said to find this even more delicious.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
## Ingredients (for 2 hungry people = 10 pieces):
350 g fresh spinach leaves
40 g white bread (toast or stale bread without the crust)
200 ml milk
1 egg, size M or larger
2 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp breadcrumbs
80 g finely grated Trentingrana (Grana Padano)
150 g flour
Salt, black pepper and nutmeg to taste
* * *
To serve:
Butter
Sage leaves
Grated Trentingrana (Grana Padano) https://nextgen-cookbook.org/en/strangolapreti-alla-trentina-2/
