Maccheroni alla Chitarra

The chitarra is a rectangular wooden frame strung with thin steel wires, spaced two or three millimeters apart. You roll a sheet of pasta dough, lay it across the strings, and press it through with a rolling pin. The wires cut the dough into strands with square cross-sections and rough surfaces. This is not complicated. It is, however, unlike anything you can achieve with a knife or a machine.

What makes maccheroni alla chitarra distinctive is the texture. The wires do not slice cleanly. They press and tear, leaving microscopic ridges on all four surfaces of each strand. Sauce clings to this pasta as it clings to nothing else. The square shape provides bite. The roughness provides grip. A bowl of chitarra dressed with lamb ragù is a different experience than the same ragù on smooth spaghetti.

Abruzzo is mountain country, isolated for centuries from the rest of Italy by the Apennines. The chitarra developed here because the tool was simple to make and the results were superior to hand-cutting. Every family had one. Grandmothers passed them to daughters. The technique requires no special skill, only the right tool and the willingness to learn.

If you do not own a chitarra, you cannot make this pasta. There is no adequate substitute. Buy one. They cost less than a good pan and will last generations.