Overview
If you are a fan of Abruzzo, you are certainly familiar with “maccheroni alla chitarra”, which are the region's delicacy together with “arrosticini” made of sheep meat.
You should therefore not miss a visit to the town that, according to tradition, invented the tool for making this type of pasta more than 150 years ago: San Martino sulla Marrucina, in the inland part of the territory of Chieti.
At that time, they called it “chitarra-maccarunare”, the prototype of which was devised by the “setacciari” of the area (artisans who went from house to house repairing the tools of the peasant civilisation) thanks to the introduction in Italy of the steel wire, popularised by the Germans. Its purpose was simple: to make it easier for housewives to cut the “tajarelle” exactly.
You will rightly ask why it called “chitarra” (lit. guitar). Because the steel strings attached to the rectangular wooden frame (spaced 2-3 millimetres apart for macaroni and on the opposite side 4-6 millimetres for fettuccine), emit vibrations reminiscent of the sound of a musical instrument.
At the beginning of history, actually, the utensil was called “carratore per pasta” (in dialect “lu carrature”), a name mentioned in a notarial document from Pescara in 1871, among the many objects in a bride's trousseau.
So take advantage of your visit to the ingenious village to buy one of these tools, which have made Abruzzo cuisine special and authentic. So, once back home, you can amaze your friends and relatives with your macaroni.
Don't worry, we'll tell you how to do it: knead the dough obtained from a mixture of flour and eggs (one egg for every 100 grams of flour) for 40 minutes and roll it out with a rolling pin so as to obtain a not-too-thin sheet to be cut into rectangles about 60 cm long and about 20 cm wide. Now, press the strips of dough with the rolling pin onto the “chitarra” until you obtain macaroni, which look like spaghetti with a square cross-section. Macaroni will descend onto the sloping plane placed inside.
A thick pasta, which absorbs any type of sauce, such as the classic sauce with “pallottine di carne” (little meat balls), one of the most popular in Abruzzo.
A tour of the centre allows you to visit the beautiful Church of San Cristinziano and the main church of San Martino, the oldest one, already recorded in the 13th century. As you will realise, the monument has undergone many structural changes over the centuries, giving it a Baroque appearance, with vaults frescoed by the Guardiagrele school artist Palmerio in the 19th century and a late 16th century processional cross by the artist Pietro Paolo Gallucci from Guardiagrele.
If you still have some time left, visit also the 14th-century churches of Madonna del Colle, San Rocco and Madonna del Suffragio, all of which have statues and sacred objects of exquisite workmanship. One of these artefacts, a 16th century processional cross, is kept in a secret place by a guardian, who changes every year, and only comes out into the light for the procession of the patron saint.