CucinaPro 177 Pasta Fresh Pasta Machine
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Our Price: $29.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $26.69 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of CucinaPro 177 Pasta Fresh Pasta Machine
Customer Review: DISREGARD NEGATIVE REVIEWS
Summary: 5 Stars
Please, oh please, disregard the negative reviewers above. The Imperia machine is easy to use, very cheap, and the results are extraordinarily better than store-bought pasta. Frankly, there is no justified comparison between the two.
Only a few essential items must be kept in mind, to reiterate from other positive reviews:
1. The dough MUST be on the dry-side. You can very easily make dough in a food processor: It will take about two minutes and involves simply flour and eggs (you may add a little water or oil, or other additives such as spinach, if you like). Mix a couple cups of Flour with three eggs, pulverize into a ball, then continue to add flour until the dough is no longer sticky. You may need to push it down and break it up a few times, and may lose a little bit in the bottom of the processor, but it's just flour and eggs (!!!)...
2. Buy the motor. It makes the process of producing Linguine or Cappellini a thousand times easier. Yes, it's $70, and a bit flimsy, but it's worth it in the end. Considering the unit itself is under 40 dollars, this shouldn't be a hardship.
3. When putting the pasta through the roller, DUST IT WITH FLOUR THOROUGHLY FIRST. This prevents sticking. Flour = No Sticky. Sticking in machine = Not enough flour. I know this is a tough concept, I know flour is really expensive and hard to come by, and I know it's really time-consuming to spend an extra three seconds dusting a ball of dough in flour before rolling it out, but it works.
4. If you lose a little bit of pasta, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. It's just flour and eggs. You're going to lose a little, or have it enter the rollers a bit off-center, your first few tries. It's NOT a big deal. You'll become a pro in no-time.
5. DO NOT COOK FRESH PASTA MORE THAN A FEW SECONDS!!! The reviewer above who commented on the "inability" to get fresh pasta "al dente" must be being facetious: Either that, or Italians have been purchasing their dry pasta in store-bought plastic bags for the past, oh, 700 years (?!?!?!?!?!). Store-bought dry pasta is a disgrace, and the fact that it takes 8-10 minutes to cook proves that fact. Fresh pasta cooks perfectly in about ten seconds: Personally, I always turn the heat off when I add the pasta, and drain it as quickly as I can get the pot to the colliander.
I hope this helps. You will love fresh pasta if properly made and properly cooked, as store-bought pasta is a pathetic, industrialized equivalent of the real thing. For the above reviewer who feels that store-bought pasta is better than fresh pasta: Stick to McDonald's and Chinese Take-out... Leave the cooking to the rest of us.
Customer Review: Fresh pasta is irresistible
Summary: 4 Stars
What is more digestible and appetizing than a plate of fresh pasta lightly dressed with a fresh sauce, or just olive oil and parmesan? If you want to make pasta, this is a good device. Just some helpful hints for using the Villaware.1. The thin noodle (tagliatellini) attachment will produce spaghetti-like thin noodles. But you need to dry the pasta sheets somewhat before you cut them. Otherwise they stick together and you will be saying nasty words in your kitchen.
2. You don't wash this thing. Flour and water equals paste and cement. So resist this bad idea. Just brush the thing out with a stiff pastry brush.
3. The pasta dough is best left to rest for 20 minutes, at least, under a damp tea towel. This allows the gluten in the flour to relax enough for you to roll it out. If you are impatient and neglect this step, you may think the pasta maker is having a tough time rolling the dough, but it is not--you have to allow the dough time to relax.
4. You go through the thickness settings from widest to narrowest, rolling out the dough and folding it into thirds, then re-rolling. If the dough piece gets unwieldy and way too long, just cut it in half, then process the halves separately. It means shorter noodles, but a lot easier handling for you.
5. Unless you really insist, you don't have to use semolina flour. In fact, this flour is often grainy and produces a less smooth result at home. I use bread flour. It's fine. And if you don't want egg yolk, just add egg whites, or those imitation eggs that are mostly egg white. Works fine.
6. If you want spinach or carrot or beet pasta, you can buy powdered vegetables that have been freeze-dried and sprayed to a fine consistency. This is an easy way to add color and flavor, without having to squeeze out pots of spinach into a nasty mess. Commercial cooking catalogs from baking and gourmet supply companies often sell these powders.
7. The home-made pasta is brittle, so really, making extra and storing it is less successful than making it fresh. The Villageware machine is so easy to use, however, once you get the knack, that you may find, as I do, that it is easier just to whip up a fresh batch than to try to process extra and store it.
ONE more hint--and it's why this is four and not five stars: the clamp has about a 2 to 2.5 inch clearance to attach to your counter. Your counters may be quite a bit thicker. So it can be hard to figure out where to mount the machine. Sometimes a kitchen table will do instead of the kitchen counter. Or you can drill a cut out under the lip of the counter for the clamp. If you are clever, it won't be visible.
Customer Review: Easy, even for clumsy thumbed people!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a great cook. I love to cook - but I was intimidated reading some of the other reviews, so although I really wanted the machine, I wasn't sure how it would all turn out. Well, don't be afraid! Its pretty easy.
Not to say that you shouldn't read the advice by others and be careful, especially if you like to improvise, as I do. Make sure to run some pasta through to practice and clean out the metal bits, as people warn, don't wash with water, be sure your dough isn't too sticky, etc - but don't be afraid! Its fun and easy and fast once you get the hang of it - which will be pretty fast.
Right away (one practice hour but no practice evenings) I make a couple great batches of ravioli and a dinner of fresh liguini.
Three great dinners so far, many more to come.
And so it gives you confidence in the kitchen! Suddenly I felt like I could do anything! (Then I tried making ethiopian bread, oops, lost that confidence pretty fast when that failed!)
The reason for my review, though is the following which may be helpful to any others who live in the high desrt or mountain regions - above 6,000 feet. As you know, if you do, baking and things with yeast and most bread-related stuff can be tricky. Dough of any sort can require additional water but then get sticky, require more flour, be dry and crumbly then, etc.
If you have experienced any of those problems, BUY THIS MACHINE. Whether for pasta, wontons, perogies or just to make your dough malleable, this thing is amazing!! What you would never be able to do with hours of kneading, this thing can do with a few runs through the widest setting.
You'll still have to add water, then add four, knead a bit maybe use a rolling pin a bit, trying to get that right initial doughiness, but then once flat enough, run the dough through a couple times on the widest setting and you'll see what I mean - consistant dough-like texture and moisture as you haven't seen since your last trip to the east coast. In the future when I make biscuits, I'll run the dough through this a few times before shaping them and I bet it will improve the taste - at least it will improve my confidence!
Customer Review: Nifty Gadget
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had this gizmo for several years now and I love it, but I must be a lot messier than the rest of you guys -- after a pasta project my floor is pretty crunchy; since it's clamped so close to the edge of the table, a lot of the semolina goes on the floor. But it's fun and it's the real thing, the one used in Italian homes.
The only drawbacks I found are the same as other reviewers noted: the handle falls out and the one-sided clamp makes it lift when rolling stiffer dough. But you get used to it. In my experience letting the dough rest a bit before cutting is a big help. It seems to cut more smoothly.
I never use eggs in my pasta so I don't worry about eggy bits left behind, but an old toothbrush will get most of the crumbs out, and dry paper towels polish it right up (hint: roll a dry paper towel through a couple of times to absorb leftover moisture to prevent rust).
My favorite pasta is semolina (always!!) and chopped cooked spinach -- that's it, and this machine is sturdy enough to handle it. FYI, it's the protein in eggs that gives that special egg-noodle "bite", that can be obtained using simply egg whites or (believe it or not) plain yogurt. Semolina, yogurt, lemon juice, zest and cracked black pepper -- heavenly! This machine rolls nice sheets to cut in large squares for a simple "open" ravioli of winter squash, brown butter and sage. And you haven't lived if you've never had lasagne made with fresh pasta. Can you tell I like to cook? ;o)
It only takes a few batches to get a feel for proper dough consistency. You have to keep in mind that no two batches are alike, since it also depends on ambient temperature and humidity -- it's all part of the fun.
This pasta maker is well worth the price. I paid a lot more for mine several years ago -- pre Amazon. Try it, you'll like it.
Customer Review: Fun Kitchen tool, but design could be improved
Summary: 4 Stars
I just received this pasta machine as a belated birthday gift from my in laws, and had a fun day trying it out for the first time this past weekend. After some initial work getting the machine all cleaned up and ready for use (read the instructions--you need to waste some pasta dough before the machine will be clean enough for making food) I was at it. The machine worked great for rolling out thin sheets of pasta, but somewhat less well for cutting the pasta. I learned after a few failed attempts to cut my sheets into fettucini that my cutter attachment had a manufacturing error--a spring in the mechanism was set incorrectly. I went in and fixed the spring and then the cutter worked fine. Really, once you have the sheets if you really want linguini or fettucini, it's probably just as easy (or easier) to lay the sheets on a cutting board and cut the thin strips out with a knife. The real problems came after I used the machine. This is not all that easy to clean. If you get pasta dough in the rollor mechanism it can be pretty difficult to get it out, the cutters can be even worse. Once I finnaly got it clean I left it in my dish rack to dry (don't do this) and found out later that the rollers had started to rust. It seems to me that The manufacturer could have easily made the entire machine out of a better quality stainless steel that would be less likely to start rusting so quickly. Anyway, I've learned my lesson, I cleaned up the rust, applied a little olive oil to the rollers to prevent them from rusting again, and next time I'll make sure to dry the machine thouroughly before walking away. In all it's a great machine for rolling ouyt pasta, and I'm sure I'll continue to use it and enjoy it, but it could be easier to take care of.