CucinaPro 178 Fresh Pasta Set
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List Price: Our Price: $66.99 You Save: $3.00 (4%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $59.95 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of CucinaPro 178 Fresh Pasta Set
Customer Review: A total success right out of the box!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had always wanted to make fresh pasta, especially ravioli with great fillings like lamb, artichokes or crab. I found the whole process daunting and the reviews of machines made it sound even scarier. This is the first reason I chose this very inexpensive machine. If I failed miserably then it would not be a great loss. On the very first try my husband and I turned out an incredibly delicious meal of lamb ravioli with an herbed cream sauce. We had never made fresh pasta before. It took a while but the learning curve was not nearly as steep as some reviewers make it sound. The machine works exactly as it should, was not full of oil and filings (I did prepare for that by making a double recipe of dough)and only using my cutter crimper tool ([...])we produced professional looking, wonderful ravioli. Yeah, the crank handle got accidentally flung across the room a couple times, but this just added to the fun as we laughed, sipped wine and marveled at the amazing little pillows we actually made ourselves in our tiny kitchen. The following recipe when kneaded and rested properly is a no fail in this machine.
Ravioli Dough:
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons salt (half that amount is fine)
* 3 eggs (room temperature)
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
To make the dough:
Place the flour in a bowl large enough to mix the dough. Add salt and mix to combine. Make a well in the center of the flour to hold eggs and oil. Add eggs and oil, and with a fork, whip the eggs and slowly incorporate flour. When dough begins to form, work it together with your hands until you can't incorporate any more of the flour (there will be flour remaining that you can not incorporate, discard it). Knead dough for about five minutes, until it is smooth. The longer you knead the smoother and more elastic it will be. Let dough rest, wrapped in plastic, for about 20 minutes. When ready to proceed, cut off a piece about the size of your palm, leaving the remaining dough wrapped and then starting at #7, roll it out progressively to the #2 setting on your pasta machine.
Customer Review: Just got the machine...
Summary: 3 Stars
I just received this machine, purchased through the Gadgetsource.com. Ordering and receiving went very well with no problems. As for the machine itself...I've sat down to play with it a little tonight. For first time use of the machine you must run through some dough that you will throw away. It will remove excess machine oil and whatnot. I just kneaded together some flour and water for this purpose. Either I'm doing something wrong or the dough I'm using is perhaps not stiff enough for the machine because the dough keeps getting caught all around in the rollers and up inside. I can't find any way to get the dough out of there but I think I got most of it after a long time of cranking the handle each direction. The cutters for each different type of pasta didn't cut, however after a little research at other sites I THINK this may be due to my dough being too soft. I wouldn't really know because the instruction booklet is something like 3 pages, 2 of them are recipes. I DEFINATELY could have used a more detailed instruction booklet. I give this machine a 3 stars at this point with the hopes of being able to rate it higher after a little practice. I hope this helps anyone. If you also have any tips that might help me feel free to let me know. Until now the only homemade pastas I've made have been by rolling it out with a rolling pin and manually cutting/shaping with a knife. OH, the ravioli attachment seems difficult to use compared to some of the "tray" looking ravioli makers I've seen online. I also did not purchase the motor because I thought it wouldn't be greatly handy. From the little I've played with the machine so far, I can see how the motor would be useful. The crank handle does not clasp into the machine, it just "sits" in the hole and can fall out easily. I've dropped it a few dozen times so far. I'm left handed though and the machine is designed slightly more for right handed people so that may be my issue with the handle. :)Customer Review: Junk -- buy the Imperia pasta machine instead
Summary: 1 Stars
This is NOT the same as the Villaware IMPERIA pasta machine! This is a cheap immitation that just doesn't work.
I bought this pasta machine because I dropped my Imperia one, and rather than just replace it with the same item, this one came with an additional pasta-cutting attachment as well as the ravioli maker, for only $9 more. The pasta machine itself is less sturdy than the original Imperia -- it's lighter and more fragile, plus the width dial is more difficult to use. I was able to make pasta sheets okay with it, but when I went to use the spaghetti cutter, it didn't work AT ALL! It simply did not grab the dough strip. I could force it in there and crank, but then it only pulled the center of it, and the outside edges would get all caught up and gummed up, and never go through the cutter. I tried all the pasta cutter attachments, and they all did the same thing.
On my Imperia, the cutters would grab the strip as soon as I started cranking, and cut very clean, perfect pasta strands. With this one, I could not get a single decent cut strand of pasta. I boxed it up and sent it back.
I also tried the ravioli maker. It's pretty tricky to work, although it is possible to get nicely shaped raviolis out of it. The problem is, they're too small, and have hardly any filling in them.
I would suggest using the Villaware 10-square Ravioli Maker instead -- it's just a metal tray-like gadget that doesn't attach to the machine.
I was very disappointed in this product, as it is very poor quality, and truly doesn't work. I don't see how they can sell it -- what good is a pasta maker if you can't actually cut the strips into strands? I am a HUGE fan of my Villaware Imperia pasta maker, and use it all the time. But this one is junk.
Customer Review: Poor Customer Service
Summary: 1 Stars
Customer Service is everything to the consumer. When he pays his money at a local shop, he returns home with a product, and if it performs as promised, he gets his money's worth.
Such is not the case when mail ordering. The customer pays for the product and waits, often for weeks. When the product finally does arrive and is damaged, a new set of circumstances comes into play. Emails back and forth to the company begin, producing copies of the invoice, item numbers, and defining the problem in detail.
After days of back and forth emailing, the consumer's only recourse is often re-boxing the item, hauling it to the nearest post office, and paying for postage. Then, the wait begins all over again.
The result: Time wasted, money spent, aggravation all around. When the company finally acknowledges receipt of your mailing and ships the product to you again, you question if you can be sure of receiving the second shipping undamaged.
The DBROTH pasta maker may be a good product - but, I wouldn't know. Mine arrived damaged. Packaging of the product was poor; there was no protective material in the box at all. Even the heavy fettuccini - linguini cutter was dented out of shape, and the ravioli cutter was contorted. After pressing the point about paying postage to mail the product back, customer service offered to pay postage, but there would still be the wait. They wanted to receive the damaged item before doing anything to replace it.
My experience with the DBROTH Company has not been a good one. The customer does not seem to be important enough to them to continue any future business relationship. Indeed, even their product suffers - they pass judgment on its quality by packaging it so poorly.
Customer Review: This item works!
Summary: 5 Stars
This pasta machine set works! I was hesistant to buy based on other reviews. I have made several batches of pasta & had never done so before. The instructions were adequate to get me started along with having viewed some youtube videos. I made a big pan of lasagna & fettucine alfredo the first night I had this. It is easy if you follow the directions & a lot of fun.
I also bought the motor for this item. Thus far I have only attached it, but have not used the machine with it. I will update this review afterward.
UPDATE:
I have now used this pasta set with the motor attached. All I can say is WOW! What an improvement! Spend the $60 for the CucinaPro Electric Motor - 400-MO, you won't regret it. Make sure that you slide a cutting attachment in place when using the motor or it will make the pasta machine off balance & it will fall over. For me this is not a problem as the cutter attachment makes a handy self-feeder for the dough when the dough sheets get long. The motor also eliminates the annoying falling crank handle & frees both hands to handle the dough which is again convenient when the dough sheets get long. The motor does not attach to the ravioli attachment because that attachment is narrower than the machine, despite what the motor's instructions say, again not a problem for me.
The instructions say to run a batch of dough through the pasta machine & cutters to remove machine oil. I ran 2 complete batches through before I had "clean" dough with no evidence of machine oil.
I paid about $120 for the pasta set & motor. Compare this to the Atlas or Imperia: motor-$120, pasta machine with 5 attachments-$190; total-$310! Note the Imperia is also made by CucinaPro.