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: ciao bella pasta!
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband bought this for me as a Christmas gift. I'm sure as much for himself as for me. I read the instructions. I read the reviews (all of them, the good and the bad). I was ready for the challenge and not afraid of a mess.
It was easy. It was fun. It wasn't the mess some complain about.
I heeded all warnings from reviewers and the instruction manual and made sure the dough was well rested, floured and ready to make perfect pasta. It did. And the clean-up was nothing. Nothing, that is, compared to the mess from my nearly 2 year old. Now that's a mess. Although I hadn't read from other reviewers about the calming, zen-like effect pasta making can have, I'm here to tell you it's the added bonus. So don't be afraid. Don't believe the naysayers. You'll know if this pushes you beyond any limits you've set for yourself. And as for the germaphobics, I say buy your pasta in the stores. What you don't see or know will keep you happy. As for our family, a little dried flour and egg to brush off is no big deal and worth the time, effort and freshness.
Customer Review: Some hints on how to use this machine
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good pasta machine, which I've seen used in a cooking school, but you need to follow some precautions to avoid headaches.1. Always flour the rollers.
2. The dough cannot be sticky. If you run wet dough through, you are going to have big time problems, especially with attempting to clean the machine. Add in flour slowly to the dough until it can be handled without sticking to your hands.
3. Run the dough through the widest setting, then fold like an envelope. Repeat about 5 times, until the dough is the right consistency (hard to describe what it should be like, but with practice, you'll know)
4. When reducing the roller gap, continue to pat flour onto the dough as needed-- you still are looking to avoid stickiness.
Also, to make the pasta much more tender (the point of fresh pasta in my opinion), do not knead the dough! The dough should not spring back when pressed on with your fingers. Mix together with fork until the fork doesn't really work anymore, then keep folding together with a pastry scraper. Then on to step 3 above.
Customer Review: Lots of fun. Well built.
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had mine for about 5 years and through about 3 cycles of enthusiasm. It is relatively easy to use but does require some patience and testing. What is the 'right' thickness for your pastas? Depends on how you prepare the dough (amt of water, eggs -- if any). Also, it is also critical to set up a drying rack of some sort. I ended up with about 10 dowel rods that I had to hang from the ceiling. There are drying racks on the market but I have not been impressed by their construction. Next best alternative it to temporarily lay out the pasta on wax paper as you work -- make lots of room. All that was for perspective on the logistics, but otherwise I have to say this is an easy way to make yourself feel like a gourmet. The taste is unlike anything you'll get at the store -- notably better than pre-packaged fresh. And yes, friends will be impressed. Solid construction -- I promise you won't need to buy a second one. A great book to go with is 'The Pasta Bible' -- one of the few books with dough recipies as well as sauces.
Customer Review: Works well, great price
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading some of the reviews I was a bit fearful of buying this, but I plunged ahead anyway because the price was right. This machine is easy to use and does exactly what it is advertised as doing. The only small problem I had was fastening it to my countertop so that it would not move, but I quickly solved that problem by placing it on a kitchen towel wrapped around the countertop overhang and using the handle as a tool to really tighten the clamp. It hasn't budged since. The instructions are a bit spotty, poorly translated by a non-English speaker. But everything is quite intuitive and my first batch of pasta turned out perfectly.By the way, in order to initially clean out the machine I made a simple dough of just flour and water. I ran it through all the different cycles and also through the cutting blades several times. I wanted to be sure the cutters were clean, but didn't want to make another batch, so I simply rekneaded the "pasta" I had just made and ran it all through again - worked out great!
Customer Review: Wonderful and popular machine.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one heavy addition to the kitchen! I had no problem operating it myself, feeding and cranking at the same time, as long as I had enough flower on the dough to ensure it wouldn't stick before I could straighten it back out after cranking. I've seen these all over television cooking shows since purchasing ours. It's clearly the most popular one.Make sure you have an overhang on your counter or somewhere else to attach the clamp. We have to pull out a drawer and use the empty space to attach ours, but it's really no problem. We experienced some mangling and pulling at the thinnest setting, but that was probably our fault.
When making the pasta, you will of course need counterspace, as some of the sheets can grow 2-3 feet long as you crank 'em through to the lowest setting. The unit only comes with one attachment which makes two different kinds of pasta, but if you're up to it, you can hand-roll your favorites like penne, macaroni, ziti, etc. I highly recommend this unit.