I love to do some home cooking. And, as with the woodworking thing, I like to get my two sons involved in the process. It’s such a great thing to watch the boys get into the creation of their meal from beginning to end.

For instance, yesterday we made some homemade pasta. I showed them how to build ring of flour on the table, and to crack the eggs and drizzle the olive oil into the middle before they mix it with their fingers, creating the dough. We kneaded it, and then used our pasta maker to roll out sheets of pasta before slicing them into ribbons. Sure, it was hard work, but I told the guys that it could have been tougher – we could have made the pasta the real old fashioned way.

Now, I have waxed poetically in the past about the combination of wood and food. And, I know that there are plenty of wooden gadgets you can build and use in the kitchen. Cutting boards, tortilla presses, knife handles and pepper grinders come to mind, and I have seen dozens of awesome examples proudly built in woodworking shops. But, how many of you know about the pasta guitar?

Yes, you heard me right – a kitchen guitar, on which you can make spaghetti alla chitarra. Basically, this kitchen implement is a wooden frame across which a series of thin wires is tightly stretched, and it makes some of the most unique pasta you have ever tasted.

How is it used? Flash back to the Abruzzo region of Italy on the eastern Adriatic Sea coast in the mid 1800s. In the days before automated pasta machines, the housewives of the region would make a standard pasta with eggs, durum and soft wheat flour and a pinch of salt. After kneading the dough, she would roll out the pasta with a rolling pin into thin sheets that would fit on top of her pasta guitar.

After moving the dough on top of the wires, she would then use her rolling pin to apply pressure to the sheet. The wires would then slice the sheet into individual strands. Since the individual strands might not fully release from the chitarra, the housewife would – and I love this – play an arpeggio by strumming her fingers across the wires of the chitarra to ensure that the individual strands would fall free. 

A quick dusting with flour to keep the strands separated, and they would be ready for a three to four minute dip in salted boiling water.

The pasta itself is unlike a round extruded pasta. In fact, it is square in cross section, and quite porous, which aids in holding on to sauces.

The process is pretty cool to watch in action. Here’s a video showing exactly how it works:

While my woodworking plans don’t have me making a chitarra any time soon, I wanted to make sure that 1) you were aware of this totally awesome wooden kitchen tool, and 2) I cataloged it, just in case I wanted to make one in the future!