Italian Fresh Spaghetti alla Chitarra with Spinach and Gorgonzola Cream | Spaghetti alla Chitarra Freschi con Spinaci e Crema di Gorgonzola
Gorgonzola makes a sauce almost by itself, which is exactly why it goes wrong so often. Warm it too far and the casein tightens while the butterfat leaks out around it, and what should be a glossy cream turns grainy. The whole method here is built on keeping the cheese below that temperature and letting the pasta, not the stove, do the final work.
Spinach is the other half of the argument. Blue cheese alone coats the palate and stays there, and after four forkfuls the dish turns heavy. Spinach brings a faint mineral bitterness and a vegetal snap that cuts the fat without adding acid, which would curdle the cream. It has to be squeezed hard, though, because the water it carries is the fastest way to break the sauce.
Under it sits fresh chitarra, egg pasta cut into square strands with real bite. A soft round noodle would disappear into a sauce this rich. The squared edges and the porous cut surface hold the cream in a thin even film instead of letting it pool, and the strand stays identifiable under the cheese to the last mouthful.
Yield: 4 servings. Prep: 40 minutes. Dough rest: 45 minutes. Cook: 20 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 45 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Abruzzo for the pasta, Lombardy for the cheese.
The Story
Spaghetti alla chitarra is properly called maccheroni alla chitarra in most of Abruzzo, because maccheroni there has always meant fresh egg pasta rather than a dried tube. The dough is the point of it. Unlike the eggless semola and water pastas of the south, this one is enriched, traditionally with a whole egg for every hundred grams of flour milled from the hard durum wheat of the Abruzzese plateaus. That gives a dough firm enough to be cut by wire rather than blade.
The wooden frame is documented in the region from the early nineteenth century, and the version that survives, a shallow box strung with steel wires above a sloping tray, spread from Chieti and Teramo through Pescara and L'Aquila. Families kept the frames hanging on kitchen walls, restrung them when a wire went and passed them down, and it is still normal to meet an Abruzzese cook using a chitarra that belonged to a grandmother.
The Gorgonzola is not Abruzzese and there is no point pretending otherwise. It comes from Lombardy and Piedmont, and this pairing is a modern one. What makes it legitimate rather than arbitrary is Abruzzo's own dairy history: the transhumance routes that carried sheep down to Puglia every autumn made this a cheese region long before it was anything else, and a robust egg pasta dressed with melted cheese is a completely native idea there. Swapping a local pecorino for a Lombard blue is a change of degree, not of kind.
Ingredients
For the spaghetti alla chitarra
Durum wheat semola rimacinata, 1 3/4 cups (260 g)
Type 00 flour, 3/4 cup (95 g)
Large eggs, 4, at room temperature
Large egg yolk, 1
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Semola for dusting the tray, 1/4 cup (40 g)
For the Gorgonzola cream
Gorgonzola dolce, rind removed, 5 oz (150 g)
Whole milk, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, one small scrape
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
For the spinach
Young spinach leaves, washed, 10 oz (280 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Garlic clove, lightly crushed and left whole, 1
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
For finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 1/2 cup (45 g)
Walnut halves, toasted and broken, 1/4 cup (30 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Coarse sea salt for the pasta water, 1 tbsp (15 g) per 4 quarts (3.8 l)
Preparation
Make the egg and semola dough
Combine the semola, the type 00 flour and the salt on a board and make a wide well. Break in the four eggs and the extra yolk, beat them lightly with a fork and draw the flour in from the inner wall until a shaggy mass forms. Knead for 10 minutes, pushing with the heel of the hand rather than folding. The dough should stay firm and slightly rough, never sticky. The extra yolk is there for colour and richness, not softness, so resist adding water.
Rest and roll the sheets
Wrap the dough tightly and leave it at room temperature for 45 minutes so the gluten relaxes and the semola finishes absorbing the egg. Divide it into four, keep three pieces covered, and roll the first out to about 1/16 in (2 mm), either on a machine stepping down setting by setting or by hand with a long pin. Chitarra sheets are deliberately thicker than tagliatelle sheets, and thinner is not better here.
Cut the strands on the chitarra
Dust the sheet lightly, trim it to the length of the frame and lay it square across the wires. Press down with one firm continuous pass of a heavy rolling pin, then two or three lighter passes to clear the last strands into the tray. Toss the cut spaghetti with semola and shape it into loose nests. If you have no frame, fold the floured sheet into a flat roll and slice it into strands 1/16 in (2 mm) wide with a sharp knife.
Wilt and squeeze the spinach
Warm the oil with the crushed garlic in a wide pan over medium heat until the garlic is fragrant but pale, then remove it. Add the spinach in handfuls with the salt, turning it as it collapses, and cook for 2 minutes only. Tip it into a sieve and press out the liquid hard with the back of a ladle, then chop it roughly. This step decides whether the sauce holds, so squeeze until nothing more runs out.
Melt the Gorgonzola into a stable cream
Break the cheese into small pieces and put it in a wide pan with the milk and the butter over the lowest possible heat. Stir constantly with a spatula, pressing the pieces against the base, until it becomes a smooth loose cream. It must not simmer. Aim to keep it under 160°F (70°C), which in practice means pulling the pan off the heat every time you see a bubble. Add the nutmeg and white pepper and hold it warm.
Salt the water lightly and cook the chitarra
Bring 4 quarts (3.8 l) of water to a rolling boil, then salt it with only 1 tablespoon (15 g), half what you would normally use. Gorgonzola and Parmigiano together carry a great deal of salt, and pasta seasoned at full strength makes the finished plate inedible. Shake the semola off the nests and cook them 2 to 3 minutes, tasting from 2 minutes. The strand should still resist very slightly at the core.
Mantecare off the heat
Take the cheese pan off the flame entirely. Add a ladle of pasta water to loosen the cream, then lift the pasta in dripping wet with tongs and begin tossing immediately. Work the pan in a circular motion for about 1 minute. The residual heat of the pasta is what finishes the emulsion, and the starch it carries is what stabilises it. If the sauce tightens, add cooking water a tablespoon at a time and keep the pan moving.
Fold in the spinach and finish
Scatter in the chopped spinach and half the Parmigiano and toss until the green is distributed through the strands rather than clumped at the bottom. Taste now, before any more salt goes near it. Grind over black pepper, add the tablespoon of raw olive oil and toss once more. Serve immediately, because this sauce is at its best in the first minute and thickens noticeably in the second.
Plating
Use warm plates for this one, unlike most fresh pasta dishes. A cold plate drops the temperature of a cheese emulsion fast enough to tighten it into a paste before the second forkful, so plates from a low oven or rinsed in very hot water and dried are worth the trouble.
Lift a portion with tongs and set it down in a loose heap rather than a twisted tower. A cream sauce this thick does not hold a sculpted nest, and forcing one only squeezes sauce out of the base. Let the spinach show through the strands: green against pale cheese is the whole visual argument of the plate.
Spoon any cream left in the pan over the top, then finish with the remaining Parmigiano, the broken toasted walnuts and a final grind of black pepper. The walnuts go on at the very end so they stay crisp. Nothing else is needed, and nothing green and decorative should be added: the spinach is already the colour.
Professional Technique
The technical heart of this dish is holding a blue cheese emulsion below its breaking point. Gorgonzola is roughly half fat and carries a high proportion of casein, and above about 160°F (70°C) the casein proteins contract and squeeze out the fat, which is why an overheated blue cheese sauce looks curdled and feels gritty. Melting it in milk and butter over the lowest heat, and then doing the final emulsification off the flame using only the heat stored in the pasta, keeps the whole process inside the safe band from start to finish.
The second decision is the choice of dolce over piccante. Gorgonzola dolce is aged around two months, stays soft and spreadable and melts into a homogeneous cream. Piccante is aged three to four months or longer, is drier and far more assertive, and it both resists melting and dominates the spinach completely. If piccante is all you can find, use two thirds of the quantity and make up the difference with an extra spoonful of milk.
Texture and Moisture Control
Every liquid in this dish is accounted for and there is no room for a stray one. The milk provides the base, the pasta water provides the starch that binds it, and the spinach provides nothing at all, which is why it is squeezed dry. Wet spinach folded into a finished cream thins it in seconds and no amount of extra cheese brings it back, because the water is inside the emulsion rather than sitting on top of it.
The starch in the cooking water does the real structural work. Fresh chitarra sheds a great deal of it in three minutes, and that starch is what allows a cheese sauce to stay suspended rather than separating into fat and solids. Take the pasta straight from the pot to the pan without draining it in a colander, and always keep a cup of the water back, because the sauce continues to tighten on the plate and a spoonful of hot starchy water is the only correct way to loosen it.
Professional Mise en Place
The pasta, the spinach and the walnuts are all done in advance. The last three minutes hold the boiling, the melting and the mantecatura, and none of them can wait for the others.
Equipment and tools
Chitarra frame, or a long sharp knife and a well floured board
Pasta machine or a long rolling pin, plus a heavy pin for the sheets
Large stockpot, plus a wide low pan for melting the cheese
Silicone spatula and a fine sieve for pressing the spinach
Instant read thermometer if you are working with blue cheese for the first time
Prepared ahead
Chitarra cut into semola dusted nests, up to 4 hours ahead
Spinach wilted, squeezed dry and chopped, up to 1 day ahead
Walnuts toasted and broken, up to 3 days ahead in a sealed jar
Gorgonzola weighed, derinded and broken into small pieces
Parmigiano grated fresh, never bought already grated
Service setup
Pasta water at a rolling boil, salted at half strength and tasted
Cheese pan on the smallest burner at the lowest setting
A full cup of pasta water reserved before the pasta comes out
Spinach at room temperature, not straight from the refrigerator
Plates warm, and walnuts and pepper within reach for the finish
Chef Tips
Buy the Gorgonzola cut from a whole wheel rather than a sealed wedge if you can. Blue cheese keeps developing in the packet, and a wedge that has sat too long turns ammoniac at the rind, a smell that goes straight into the cream and cannot be removed. Cut the rind away generously and smell the paste first.
Under salt everything on purpose. The cheese, the Parmigiano and the pasta water each contribute salt, and the only stage you can correct is the last one. Season the spinach with a quarter teaspoon, salt the pasta water at half strength, and taste the finished pan before you reach for anything else.
Toast the walnuts the same day and watch them closely. Walnut oil is delicate and the gap between fragrant and bitter is under a minute in a hot oven. Take them out while they smell sweet and break them with your fingers rather than chopping, so the pieces stay irregular.
If the sauce splits in the pan, do not add more cheese. Pull it off the heat, add two tablespoons of cold milk and stir hard in one direction from the centre outwards. Cold liquid and mechanical agitation bring a cheese emulsion back together far more reliably than more fat does.
Common Mistakes
Overheating the Gorgonzola. Above about 160°F (70°C) the casein contracts and pushes the butterfat out, and the cream turns grainy for good. Melt it over the lowest heat and finish the emulsion off the flame with the pasta.
Leaving the spinach wet. Unsqueezed spinach releases water directly into the emulsion and thins it within seconds. Press it in a sieve until nothing more runs out, then chop it.
Salting the pasta water normally. Between the blue cheese and the Parmigiano this dish already carries a heavy salt load, and full strength pasta water pushes it past edible. Use half the salt you would use for a tomato sauce.
Adding cream to thicken it. Double cream mutes the blue character and makes the sauce cloying. Thickness comes from the starch in the cooking water and from tossing hard, not from more fat.
Serving it on cold plates. A cheese emulsion sets as it cools and a cold plate turns it pasty before the second forkful. Warm the plates and carry them to the table quickly.
Wine Pairing
Alto Adige Gewürztraminer DOC: The classic answer to blue cheese and still the strongest. Its lychee and rose petal aromatics stand up to the Gorgonzola instead of being erased by it, and the broad oily texture matches the weight of the cream. Choose a dry bottling, since residual sugar would tip a rich plate over.
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Riserva DOCG: A riserva has the extra body and the slight nuttiness that a lighter white lacks here, and its famous bitter almond finish runs alongside the toasted walnuts. The acidity is high enough to scrub the fat off the palate between mouthfuls, which is precisely what a cheese sauce demands.
Franciacorta DOCG: Bubbles are the most efficient tool against a coating sauce, and the bottle fermented autolytic character of a good Franciacorta brings bread and hazelnut notes that sit comfortably beside melted cheese. A brut with several years on the lees has the structure to handle the Gorgonzola without being flattened.
Lugana DOC: Turbiana grown on the clay of the southern Lake Garda shore gives a white with unusual density for its price and a saline mineral finish. That salinity picks up the savoury side of the cheese while the gentle citrus keeps the spinach from tasting flat.
Collio Friulano DOC: Friulano brings a distinctive bitter almond edge and a herbal green note that meets the mineral bitterness of the spinach head on, which no other wine on this list does. It has real weight without oak, so it carries the sauce, and the dry finish keeps the plate from feeling heavy.
Storage & Reheating
Dressed pasta keeps refrigerated for 1 day in an airtight container and no longer, because the emulsion firms into a solid block as the butterfat sets. Uncooked chitarra is the component that stores best: semola dusted nests hold 4 hours at room temperature, 2 days refrigerated under a cloth, or 2 months frozen if you freeze the nests apart on a tray before bagging them, then cook from frozen with 1 extra minute.
The Gorgonzola cream can be made a day ahead and refrigerated in a sealed container. Rewarm it in a small pan over the lowest heat with 2 tablespoons of milk, stirring constantly, and never let it approach a simmer. Wilted squeezed spinach keeps 1 day refrigerated. Neither the cream nor the dressed pasta should be frozen, since cheese emulsions separate irreversibly on thawing.
To reheat leftovers, put them in a wide pan over low heat with 3 tablespoons of milk or water and toss constantly for about 2 minutes until the sauce loosens and coats again. A microwave overheats the cheese in patches and splits it, and an oven dries the strands out. Add a little extra Parmigiano only at the end, once the sauce has come back together.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings:
Calories: 810 kcal
Total Fat: 39 g
Saturated Fat: 17 g
Trans Fat: 0.5 g
Unsaturated Fat: 20 g
Cholesterol: 265 mg
Sodium: 980 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 74 g
Fiber: 5 g
Total Sugars: 4 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 34 g
Lactose: 3 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, iron, folate, vitamin K, vitamin A, phosphorus
These figures are estimates. Sodium is the value that moves most, since it depends almost entirely on the particular Gorgonzola and on how much Parmigiano goes on at the table.
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