A chitarra (pasta guitar) is a frame strung with music wire, used to cut fresh pasta into strands. Chitarras originated in the Abruzzo region of Italy. One rolls out pieces of pasta dough by hand, places each sheet of fresh pasta on the wires, and presses the sheet through the wires with a rolling pin. The cut noodles are then tossed to separate them, and set aside briefly before cooking.
The process begins by making dough, kneading it by hand, and allowing it to rest for an hour or so before rolling and cutting. If the flour has been freshly stone-milled from whole grains, the bran must first be sieved from the flour, additional liquid may be needed for the dough, and stickier dough may need to rest for half an hour to hydrate before being kneaded with more flour. Otherwise, making pasta completely by hand is a simple process. Books are unnecessary for dough recipes, using flour, water or other liquid, eggs or yolks, perhaps salt or oil; get the consistency right and the balance of ingredients can be improvised as easily as making salad.
While pasta is often cut by machine, a pasta machine offers only a few choices for thickness and produces variable results depending on tension and feed rate. By contrast, when rolling out dough with a rolling pin, one can roughly achieve any desired thickness. In fact, it is far easier to make pasta by hand than by machine. It is a less time-consuming, more forgiving, and a more satisfying process to cut pasta with a chitarra; the cuts will be cleaner and the pasta will have a superior texture.
First and second prototypes. The prototype on the left had an error in that the ends should have covered the sides. This was corrected in the one seen on the right.
The problem with commercially available chitarras is that most are rather poorly executed, having global tension controls but no way to adjust individual wire tensions. If a few wires become looser than the rest, what should be a quick process unravels into a frustrating session of tweaking to get the last few strands of pasta from each sheet to fall through. However, making a chitarra is an interesting, if challenging, project.
You’ll need to begin with a wooden frame that will eventually be fitted with zither tuning pins and fine music wire (0.198-inch diameter). The corners of the box may be made with dovetail joints, but screws will be much faster and easier. My first attempt used eight screws in maple wood, which turned out to be no match for 36 strands of #5 music wire tuned to middle C. The frame twisted so badly that tuning the strings on one side pulled the other side and warped the box. A day later, the strings were too loose to cut pasta.
Stringing details. Music wire (#5) is used, threaded through holes 1/16th inch.
This Italian chitarra is a fine model that has “keys” (on right) necessary to regulate string tension.
One needs a plan for the wire ends. They’re sharp, they can hurt, and one breaks wires while awkwardly stringing the chitarra. I drilled a tiny hole through the tuning block next to each zither pin, and fed each wire end back through the block after going through the pin. This assists in neatly winding wire from both directions around each zither pin.
You will want an ergonomic, easily deciphered, tuning pin layout, keeping the strings from rubbing against pins. Guide grooves are needed for each wire, and grooves filed perpendicularly can hold brass rods to serve as bridges for the strings. This guarantees that the strings all lie in a perfect plane.
My experience in making a chitarra was an adventure that required several prototypes. An experiment that delved into algebra, geometry, music, and history, as well as woodworking, it ultimately yielded a fascinating and effective cooking tool used for making the finest of traditional pastas. For more information and links to plans and sources for commercial chitarras, visit this site.
First published April 2016
Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Cured San Marzano Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Chef Rachel Goulet, Amali, New York City
The dough has to be slightly firmer than usual for fresh pasta, so it will cut neatly when pressed against the chitarra. To make the dough firmer you simply need to add a little more flour. Begin this recipe three days before serving.
Ingredients
For the cured tomato sauce*:
- •Two 794 gram (28 ounce) cans peeled whole San Marzano tomatoes, drained
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) sugar
- •1.42 liters (6 cups) extra-virgin olive oil
- •Zest of 1 orange, in strips
- •Zest of 1 lemon, in strips
- •43 grams (½ cup, lightly packed), fresh basil leaves
- •28 grams (½ cup, lightly packed), fresh oregano sprigs
- •1 clove of garlic, minced
- •Pinch of dried chili flakes
For the pasta:
- •283 grams (10 ounces/2 cups) pasta flour, also called “00”flour (all-purpose flour may be used but cannot be stored overnight as it will oxidize)
- •1.2 ml (¼ teaspoon) salt
- •3 eggs, lightly beaten
- •1 egg yolk
- •2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) olive oil
- •Freshly grated parmesan or pecorino, for serving
- •Fresh basil leaves, for garnish
*Begin preparations three days ahead of time. The sauce will need two nights of curing before finishing and serving.
Preparation
For the cured tomato sauce: Three days before serving, squeeze juice out of each tomato. Arrange flat on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and sugar, evenly distributing all over tomatoes. Put in refrigerator overnight to cure.
Next day, take out tomatoes to bring to room temperature. Put cured tomatoes in a heat-resistant container with room at the top. Bring the olive oil (minus 15 ml/1 tablespoon) to a bare simmer and add orange, lemon, basil, and oregano. Remove from heat and allow to steep until cooled. Pour oil mixture over tomatoes and mix gently. Refrigerate overnight.
Next day, as the water is boiling for the pasta, strain out all oil, herbs and zest from tomatoes, and chop tomatoes until almost mashed. In a sauté pan, add garlic and chili with the remaining 15 ml (1 tablespoon) olive oil, and stir until softened but not browned. Add 118 ml (1/2 cup) of the tomatoes with a little water; fresh water is preferred, if using pasta water be careful of the salt content. Set aside and keep warm.
For the pasta: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Mound it and make a well in the middle. Add all the eggs and egg yolk in the well along with the olive oil. With your hands or a fork, start incorporating flour slowly inside of the well until you have no liquid left. Once in a relative ball, flour the surface of your counter and take ball out to start kneading. Knead pasta dough until it is smooth and when you poke it, it bounces back (it will take about 10 minutes of kneading). Wrap with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Once rested, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll the dough to .3 cm (1/8-inch) thickness with a pasta machine or a rolling pin. The dough should be no longer or wider than the strings of your chitarra. To cut with a chitarra: Lay a strip of dough over the strings of the chitarra. (If you have a two-sided chitarra, use the wider spaced strings.) Roll your rolling pin lengthwise up and down the pasta. The strings should cut it cleanly into strands that fall into the tray of the chitarra.
Collect the strands and dust them with flour. Gather the strands into loose nests and place them on a floured tray. Leave the strands on the tray uncovered at room temperature until you are ready to cook them.
To cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil, adding enough salt so it is salty like the ocean. Shake the excess flour from the strands of pasta and drop them in the hot water. Stir and separate the strands. Cook the pasta for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When sauce is warm, add cooked chitarra and toss together over low heat until sauce is “hugging” all the noodles. Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan or pecorino. If desired, garnish with fresh basil leaves.
