Ingannapreti (trick the priests) or sorpresine, like lying tortellini, are names that refer to a type of fresh pasta that arouses curiosity from the moment you hear them.
Sorpresine or ingannapreti belong to the Romagna tradition, while tortellini bugiardi or bugie to the Bolognese repertoire. Both refer to fresh egg pasta that imitates stuffed pasta, even though it has no filling. This was the pasta of people who could not afford the rich filling of cappelletti or tortellini.
Ingannapreti means “trick the priests.” These are supposed to look like filled cappelletti, but the trick is- they are empty. A funny old sense of humor those people of Romagna have. Even the other name of sorpresine refers to a surprise.
Why did they have to trick the priest? Let’s find out the reason.
Ingannapreti
Abroad, the most common name is Little Surprises; in Italy, it is better known as ingannapreti. The origin of this humorous name lies in the anticlericalism that has historically distinguished Romagna, a sentiment also reflected in the region’s recipes.
Strozzapreti (strangle-priest) and ingannapreti are typical examples of the Romagna peasant’s disposition toward the clergy. Romagna and Bologna were part of the State of the Church until the unification of Italy (I have told this history here). But while Bologna was rich, the Romagna area was poor and almost always hungry.
At that time, priests visited homes to collect taxes, which also happened during famine or illness of the head of the household. In both cases, strozzapreti and ingannapreti explicitly express the feelings of peasants towards taxes and who collected them. The first name recalls a kind of exclamation/wishing (strangle-the-priest). In the second case, deceiving the priest refers to his disappointment with the absence of the filling from the pasta.
Historical Notes
This recipe appears in many home cookbooks, such as the 19th-century one by Maria Santa Bazzoni, known as Marietta. The azdora was the grandmother of local gastronomy and historian Tino Babini, who recounts how, at the Fair of the Seven Sorrows in Russi (Ravenna) in the 1950s and 1960s, ingannapreti were served alongside cappelletti for those who, as yet, could not afford the latter.
That Fair is the oldest in all of Romagna, its origins dating back to the late 16th century. It was Innocent XI who established it in 1688 to celebrate Our Lady of Sorrows, depicted in popular iconography with her heart pierced by seven swords, representing the sorrows of the Virgin’s life. The Fair still takes place every year in September.
I dressed the ingannapreti with tomato sauce, mascarpone, and smoked pancetta.
Buona cucina, Monica
Keep in Touch
- To receive unpublished recipes, tips, and food stories, sign up for the Tortellini&CO newsletter.
- Follow me on Instagram.
Ingannapreti (trick the priests) or sorpresine, pasta of Romagna
Ingredients
Pasta dough
- 2 eggs, about 100 g
- 200 g 00 flour
Tomato sauce
- 30 g of olive oil
- 60 g of butter
- 80 g fresh mascarpone cheese
- 100 g smoked bacon cut into thin strips
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano or thyme
- 300 g of tomato passata
- 100 ml of water
- salt to taste
Instructions
The pasta dough
- Place the flour on a cutting board.
- Make a well with your fist in the center of the flour and add the eggs.
- Using a fork, gradually incorporate the flour into the well in a circular motion until large breadcrumbs form.
- From this point on, knead the dough on a clean surface with hands and wrists, imparting a motion that pushes the mixture forward.
- If you need to, clean the working surface with a bench scraper.
- Knead the dough vigorously until smooth, firm, and well-combined, about 5-10 minutes.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours at room temperature. If storing overnight, refrigerate, then bring back up to room temperature before use.
Pasta sheet
- After resting, flour the cutting board and dough. Roll out a thin sheet of dough by hand or using a pasta machine.
- By hand: flatten the ball with the palm of your hand and begin rolling out the pasta dough, starting from the center toward the sides and rotating it continuously (at least at first) to impart a regular shape.
- When the sheet becomes wide, wrap it around the rolling pin to rotate it.
- When the pasta sheet is very thin, cut out 3.5x3.5cm squares using the pasta wheel.
- Take a square of dough and form a triangle by joining and pressing two corners at the tip.
- Pinch the other two corners by matching the points and pinch to seal.
- Let the fresh dough rest for 30 minutes on a floured tray.
Sauce
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter in the oil over a low flame and on a medium-small stove.
- Add the sauce, water, and smoked bacon and stir. Also, add the mascarpone cheese and cover with the lid.
- Cook the sauce with the pan covered on low heat for 2 minutes. Remove the lid, stir, and cook for 3 minutes more or until reduced as you like, stirring occasionally. Taste, add salt if needed, and turn off.
- Cook pasta in boiling salted water until it rises to the surface. Drain and toss in the saucepan.
- You can freeze fresh pasta after air-drying it for at least an hour. Store leftover seasoned pasta in the refrigerator for up to two days.
