Product Description

This set gives you everything you need to make your favorite pasta! Make fresh spaghetti, fettuccini, angel hair, ravioli and lasagnette in the comfort of your own home. Made of chrome coated steel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2829 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: Cucina Pro
• Model: 178
• Dimensions: 6.00" h x 7.75" w x 8.00" l, 6.00 pounds

Features

• Makes spaghetti, fettuccini, angel hair, ravioli and lasagnette
• All attachments included
• Made of chrome coated steel

Customer Reviews

Junk -- buy the Imperia pasta machine instead
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.

Don't be scared, it works.
I was hesitant to buy this product based on the two negative, most up-voted reviews. One goes on about how crummy and unworkable the product is; the other talks about black and silver metal particles coming out of the device.

I purchased it anyway, based on the other reviews that haven't been voted up past the two negative reviews for some reason.

The bottom line is that the product is relatively inexpensive and it works.

I've encountered no metal particles in my pasta. The pasta can travel to the sides as you crank if you're not careful, but it does go through. The product does work. It appears to me to be solidly built. Its manufacture does not appear tinny or crummy.

The main body of the unit is designed to flatten your dough to the desired thickness. There are seven settings. You start with the most thick and work your pasta down to the desired level of thinness.

The other pieces are attachments that involve the second stage where you make the pasta the desired shape (fettuccine style, spaghetti style, etc.). You attach the unit by sliding it into grooves on the front of the main unit. You then attach the crank into a hole on the side of the attachment and turn it to work the pasta through. The attachments easily slide in and out but stay in place once attached.

So don't be scared. It works.

There are a few annoyances, however.

- The bottom support "pads" aren't pads at all, but pieces of hard white plastic. On smooth surfaces, the machine will slide during use if not held in place.

- The height of the crank is higher than the machine, so you will have to use the machine with the edge of it near the edge of a counter.

- When you put one of the attachments (to cut the pasta into the various kinds of pasta shapes) on the unit, the weight distribution isn't completely stable, and it can topple over if you're not careful. This really hasn't been much of a problem for me, though. It can topple, but generally doesn't.

- The crank is removable and does not lock in place. If you forget this fact, it can fall out on you if you move the unit and haven't taken out the crank.

And, lastly, some helpful advice as there may be other newbie pasta makers out there like myself.

Before using the unit, make sure you have enough room. You will need somewhere to lay out or hang your pasta.

There may be a reason why the "pads" on the main unit aren't sticky pads. As you crank the pasta out, you have the option to slide the unit so that the pasta can be flat when it comes out. Imagine feeding out a length of rope as you walk backwards. If you do that, the rope will form a relatively straight line. If you stay stationary, the rope will just fall in front of you, folding and coiling on itself.

Depending on the pasta recipe and thickness setting you use, your pasta may be brittle and break as it folds or may stick to itself when it remains in contact with itself for some time. So I think sliding the unit as you crank or having someone else around to gently grab the pasta and pull it forward can be a great help.

Manage your pasta-making in stages by portioning out the dough into small portions, so that the unprocessed pasta isn't sitting out, drying up, and becoming brittle and the pasta being processed doesn't have a chance to stick to itself once made because your attention is on managing your work space and dealing with finding a place for your pasta, moving it around gently, making sure the unprocessed pasta isn't getting too dry, etc.

My first few attempts at pasta making were a mess because I didn't do this. Pasta was everywhere, and my real-estate for working was dwindling rapidly. I painted myself in a corner.

Give yourself lots of time and room by making sure you have a large working area. Portion out the dough, keeping the portions you aren't processing in the fridge wrapped in saran wrap.

Also, depending on your recipe, the cooking time for the pasta may be very different from what you expect. I would work with really small portions at first, cooking experimentally and sampling often while boiling.

Fresh pasta cooking is different than cooking store bought stuff. Some kinds of fresh pasta take longer than you expect to get to the right mouth-feel, others take a lot less time.

The low price of this unit it makes it ideal for beginners like myself. I am sure there are other units that are better, but this one works for me at my current stage of culinary development. I figure three stars would be a fair rank in this regard.

Good luck and have fun!

Nice shape, but with a lot of BLACK and SILVER IRON POWDER
This machine can give you a very nice shaped pasta if you prepare the dough with bread machine. However, it will also return you a pasta sheet with a lot of BLACK, SILVER IRON POWDER. Inititally, I though it is a normal manufacturing problem, and it could be cleaned by passing the dough for several times. Unfortunately, I repeated this process for over two hours (more than 50 times), it still returned me the same thing and with the same amount of IRON POWDER. I don't recommend this machine unless you know how to clean it entirly.