This past weekend, my husband’s family got together to try out the birthday present my husband received from his sister: a chitarra. Chitarra (pronounced with a hard k sound, my Italian-class-award-winning niece tells me) is Italian for guitar, and this pasta-making contraption is strung rather like a guitar. Enter my guitar-expert brother-in-law who, although not Italian in anyway, had a knack for making this thing work AND provided the perfect tool for plucking the spaghetti strands off the instrument.

With 12 of us participating, it still took all afternoon to make a batch of the most incredible tasting spaghetti it has ever been my honor to eat! In this instructional video below, please note that the men were in charge of the pasta-making, while the women are gossiping in the background and sipping Prosecco.

You can also note that we rolled out the dough with a pasta machine, which – according to family sources – is an abomination. If we were AUTHENTIC Italians, we would have rolled it out with a broom handle.

Be sure to come back on Thursday to check out the Guess My Character Blogfest!