CANNELLONI

It is said that Antonino Ercolano was already serving them in 1800. He had invented the little La Favorita trattoria in order to turn to account the culinary arts he had learnt as a seminarian at the archbishopric. He had not managed to become a priest, but for his friends and for all Sorrento he had nevertheless earned the affectionate nickname “O’ Parrucchiano” – the parish priest. 
And in the two little rooms on Corso Italia he had also invented a highly personal way of preparing gussets of pasta rolled up any old how and filled with a rich tomato sauce and a smidgen of meat, all covered in tomato: he called them strascinati – from the amusing way he had of rolling out and pulling the pasta with his rolling pin.
In the early 1920s, when Sorrento was an must on the Grand Tour of the European aristocracy, Salvatore Coletta, the cook, rolled them up in great style, being more generous with the meat and changing the name to “cannelloni”. They were an overnight success, thanks in part to the work of Federico Nicola, a cook at the Favorita for over thirty years.