Scazzatiello of San Lorenzo
Castel San Lorenzo, near Salerno, is hometown of “scazzatiello”, also known as “cavatieddu”, a kind of handmade pasta that probably derive from the older cavatielli that come from gnocchi made in medieval times. Traditionally the dough was made of hard grain flour, water, oil and salt. Today instead hard grain and soft grain flour are mixed with fresh eggs, oil, fine salt and water. Production is still traditional: flour is massed on the table and a hole is made in the middle, like a volcano, into which eggs, oil and a pinch of salt are added. The dough is kneaded by hand and water is added gradually as required until it’s compact and smooth and left to rest for an hour. The dough is cut into smaller pieces that’ll become pasta cylinders, 1 cm wide, that will be cut into smaller square pieces that are separated and made into “scazzatielli” by dividing them in pairs with the thumbs from both hands and rotating in both directions. The last operation called “scazzare”, to squash, requires a certain ability. After this, the scazzatielli are left to dry for an amount of time which depends on the season. They’re cooked with ragù of castrated meat sauce. Today scazzatielli can be tasted at Castel San Lorenzo during the popular celebration in August, during which the “coupling” ritual is performed. The participants drink two bottles of wine, a red and a white one and get their clothes stained to demonstrate that they have drunk.
