Maccheroni alla chitarra

This is one of the oldest dishes of Abruzzo and Molise in southern Italy. The pasta dough is made with durum wheat semolina and water and rolled out, not too thinly, then pressed through wires stretched across a wooden frame – the chitarra (guitar). The resulting strands, called tonnarelli, are like square spaghetti. The recipe name, ‘maccheroni alla chitarra’, dates back to the time when macaroni was used as a general term for pasta, as it still is in some parts of Italy.