P
Italian · Abruzzo
Maccheroni alla Chitarra con Ragù di Agnello
Abruzzo's defining pasta format: square-section spaghetti formed by pressing fresh egg dough through the strings of a wooden 'chitarra' (guitar), creating a surface texture unlike any other pasta — the strings cut rather than extrude, producing a rough, toothsome square cross-section that grips sauce with extraordinary efficiency. The canonical sauce: lamb ragù (shoulder and rib) slow-cooked with peperoncino, tomato, white wine, and olive oil for 3+ hours. Every Abruzzese family owns a chitarra; the pasta cannot be made without it.
I
The Market List
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For the pasta dough
400 g
tipo 00 flour
Your own market
4
eggs
whole, room temperature
Your own market
For the ragù
600 g
lamb shoulder
bone-in, cut into large pieces
Your own market
300 g
lamb ribs
trimmed
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 ml
dry white wine
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
400 g
2–3
peperoncino
dried, crumbled
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
60 ml
extra-virgin olive oil
Your own market
1 tsp
fine sea salt
Your own market
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II
The Method
1
Mound the flour on a clean work surface and form a well. Break the eggs into the centre. Beat the eggs gently with a fork, drawing in flour from the inner wall until a shaggy dough forms. Work the mass by hand for 10 minutes until smooth, firm, and without stickiness. Wrap in cloth and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. The dough is ready when it springs back slowly but completely under a thumb press.
2
Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy casserole over medium-high heat. Season the lamb shoulder pieces and ribs with salt. Lay the pieces in a single layer and brown on all sides without moving them prematurely — the meat must release cleanly from the pan. A deep mahogany crust on every surface is the signal to turn. Remove the browned pieces and set aside.
3
Deglaze the casserole with the white wine, scraping all browned deposits from the base. Allow the wine to reduce by half — the sharp alcohol note must give way to a soft, rounded acidity on the nose before proceeding.
4
Return the lamb to the casserole. Add the crushed tomatoes and crumbled peperoncino. The liquid should barely cover the meat; add a small amount of water only if necessary. Bring to a trembling simmer, cover, and cook over the lowest possible heat for a minimum of 3 hours. This is where the dish lives or dies: the shoulder's connective tissue must dissolve entirely and the braising liquid must reduce to a thick, glossy sauce that coats the back of a spoon with no trace of wateriness. Meat that offers any resistance to a fork extended into the thickest piece is not yet done.
5
Remove the lamb pieces. Pull the meat from the bones in large shreds; discard bones and any cartilage. Return the shredded meat to the sauce and stir to combine. Taste for salt and peperoncino.
6
Divide the rested dough into four portions. Using a rolling pin, roll one portion to a sheet of 2–3 mm thickness — precisely matching the string spacing of the chitarra. Lay the sheet across the taut strings of the chitarra. Roll firmly over the sheet with the pin, applying even downward pressure, until the strings have cut through and the maccheroni fall through to the tray below. The strings must be taut and evenly spaced; any slack produces pasta that bunches and sticks rather than falling as clean square-section strands. Repeat with remaining portions. Gather the maccheroni loosely and dust with flour.
7
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a rolling boil. Add the maccheroni alla chitarra and cook for 2–3 minutes. The pasta is done when it is springy and toothsome throughout its square cross-section with no raw flour taste at the centre — it will cook faster than round pasta of the same nominal thickness.
8
Drain the pasta, reserving a ladleful of cooking water. Add the maccheroni directly to the ragù in the casserole over low heat and toss to coat, adding a splash of pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce to a glossy, clinging consistency. Every angle of the square cross-section should carry sauce.
From the canon — Pasta cooking water contains dissolved starch (released from the pasta surface during boiling) at a concentration that increases with pasta-to-water ratio an… Pasta Water: Starch Concentration and Sauce Binding →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Milk-fed Abruzzese lamb shoulder (agnello da latte) from the high Apennine pastures of Gran Sasso — sweetest fat, most delicate connective tissue. Eggs from heritage-breed hens with deep orange yolks. Chitarra strung with traditional gut or steel at 2 mm spacing.
02
Estate — Grass-fed domestic lamb shoulder, bone-in, from a named farm. Free-range eggs. A well-maintained chitarra with taut steel strings.
03
Market — Good-quality lamb shoulder from a butcher, bone-in preferred. Standard supermarket free-range eggs. A new or recently re-strung chitarra.
04
House — Any bone-in lamb shoulder. Standard eggs. A borrowed or entry-level chitarra — provided its strings are taut and evenly spaced, the pasta is achievable.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Rested dough springs back slowly but completely under a thumb press — neither sticky nor cracking at the edges when folded.
◇Sight. The pasta sheet rolled to exactly the string-spacing thickness passes cleanly through the chitarra strings under pin pressure, falling as discrete square-section strands without bunching.
◇Touch. A fork extended into the thickest piece of shoulder meat meets no resistance — the connective tissue has fully softened.
◇Sight. The reduced ragù coats the back of a spoon in a thick, glossy film with no watery pooling at the edges.
◇Where it lives or dies. The ragù must cook for a minimum of three hours at the barest simmer until the lamb shoulder's connective tissue has fully dissolved and the braising liquid has reduced to a thick, glossy sauce — a ragù that is thin or whose meat still resists the fork cannot be rescued at table.
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VI
What to Pour
A medium-bodied central Italian red with sufficient grip to meet the lamb fat and peperoncino heat — Montepulciano d'Abruzzo pairs naturally, its tannic structure and dark fruit echo the slow-cooked ragù without overwhelming the pasta's texture.
The whole pairingPillar VII
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