If you can’t find strozzapreti pasta, try making this dish with other fresh pasta shapes such as trofie or orecchiette. Also, if you want to give extra character to the sauce, add plenty of freshly ground pepper – although if there are children eating better to avoid it.

The classic pasta to use with this recipe is called ‘Strozzapreti’ – or ‘priest strangler’ - and there are several theories about how it got this Italian name. One suggests that the pasta vaguely recalls the shoelaces with which, during the harsh papal rule, one could strangle the priests. Another theory suggests the priests were so gluttonous that they ate this delicious pasta until they choked themselves. A third theory is that, during the papal rule, families should pay tribute to the State in the form of eggs, so the housewives could only make pasta with flour and water, making them wish to choke the priests. Finally, there is the theory that the husbands themselves - strongly anti-clerical - wished to choke the priests themselves when the wives offered them abundant, homemade fresh pasta dishes.