Maccheroni alla chitarra

Peel the onion and the carrot, trim the celery and chop all three finely. Trim any gristle from the beef, lamb and pork and cut each into pieces of about 1.5 cm.

Check The vegetables are in small, even pieces, and the meat in pieces of about the same size, so they cook evenly.

Tip Use one board and knife for the raw meat and wash them before you make the dough.

Warm the 200 ml of olive oil in the casserole over a medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and let them soften, stirring now and then.

Check Soft, shrunk and lightly golden, with no dark or burnt edges.

Tip Our guide: 8–10 minutes. If they start to catch, turn the heat down.

Add the three meats, turn the heat up to medium-high and keep browning them, turning the pieces, until they are coloured all over.

Check Browned on every side, and the liquid the meat gives off has gone.

Tip Our guide: 8–10 minutes. Spread the pieces out: crowded, they stew instead of browning.

Pour in the 150 ml of red wine and let it bubble until it has evaporated, scraping the bottom of the casserole with the wooden spoon.

Check Only a little liquid is left, and the sharp smell of wine has gone.

Tip Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, the region's own red wine, is the one to use.

Taste the ragù and add salt until it is properly seasoned. Keep it warm over the lowest heat, covered, until the pasta is cooked.

Check It tastes well seasoned, and is hot when the pasta goes in.

Tip Our guide: made ahead, the ragù goes into the fridge in shallow containers within 2 hours of cooking and keeps for 3 days; bring it back to the boil before you dress the pasta.

Heap the 600 g of flour on the board and make a wide well in the middle. Break the 6 eggs into it, add a pinch of salt and beat them with a fork, drawing in the flour from the inside of the well little by little.

Check A rough, shaggy dough with all the flour taken up.

Tip Work with clean hands on a clean board, and do not taste the raw dough: raw eggs and flour can carry salmonella.

Knead the dough, pushing it away with the heel of your hand and folding it back, until it is smooth and elastic.

Check Smooth and elastic: it springs back slowly when pressed and no longer sticks to your hands or the board.

Tip Our guide: 10–15 minutes. If it stays crumbly, wet your hands and keep going; if it sticks, dust the board with a little flour.

Tip In Abruzzo the dough is traditionally worked for a long time, as long as 35–40 minutes.

Cut the dough into pieces of about 300 g, put back all but one in the fridge, wrapped, and roll it out with the rolling pin on a lightly floured board until it is as thick as the strings of your chitarra are apart, 2 mm–3 mm. Keep it a long strip, a little over 60 cm long: its width follows from the thickness.

Check Even all over, with no thinner patches or thicker edges; held against the strings, the edge of the sheet is as thick as the gap between two of them.

Tip The thickness comes first: as thick as the strings are apart, so each strand comes out square. Never roll thinner to make the sheet wider.

Tip Our guide: a batch for 6 makes three pieces of about 300 g.

With the knife and the ruler, trim the sheet into a rectangle about 60 cm long and as wide as the sheet neatly allows, up to 20 cm: about 20 cm wide with strings 2 mm apart, about 16 cm at 2.5 mm, about 13 cm at 3 mm. Wrap the trimmings and put them back in the fridge with the dough still to roll, and knead them into the next piece.

Check A rectangle with straight edges, about 60 cm long, and still as thick as the gap between the strings.

Tip Our guide: if your chitarra's strings are shorter than 60 cm, cut the rectangle to the length of the strings; it is then a little wider, up to 20 cm.

Tip Our guide: discard what you trim from the last sheet, rather than leave it out of the fridge.

Lay the sheet on the strings of the chitarra, its length along the strings. Press the rolling pin down on it and roll it firmly along the length of the sheet until the strings cut right through and the maccheroni drop onto the sloping board beneath. Run a finger across the strings to free the last ones, dust the maccheroni with semolina and lay them on the tray in loose nests. Roll, trim, dry and cut the other pieces the same way.

Check Long strands with a square section, all separate, and none stuck in the strings.

Tip Use the side of the chitarra with the strings 2 mm–3 mm apart; the other side, with wider strings, cuts fettuccine.

Tip Our guide: cook the maccheroni within 2 hours of breaking the eggs, counting only the time out of the fridge. If the ragù is not ready, put the tray in the fridge, loosely covered, and cook the nests straight from it.

Drain the maccheroni and toss them in a warm bowl with most of the ragù, adding a few spoonfuls of the cooking water if it needs loosening.

Check Every strand is coated, with no pool of water at the bottom.

Tip Keep back a few ladles of ragù, with pieces of meat, for the top.

Share the maccheroni between warm plates, spoon the rest of the ragù and the meat over them, scatter with grated pecorino dolce, or Parmigiano, and the chopped chilli, and serve at once.

Check Hot, glossy with sauce, with the cheese just melting.

Tip At the table in Abruzzo there is often a cruet of olio santo, extra virgin olive oil in which chillies have been steeped, for those who want more heat.

Tip Our guide: leftovers go into the fridge within 2 hours, in shallow containers, and keep for 3 days from cooking the ragù, the day ahead included; reheat them until steaming hot, 75 °C at the centre.