Let’s face it – if you’ve spent any amount of time learning how to cook, writing about food or preparing recipes for family and friends, there was most likely a time when you wanted to try your hand at making your own pasta. Chances are, you’ve tried fresh pasta at a restaurant, wondered why it tasted so good and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Wait a second – I’m describing myself here. Well, this may have happened to you as well, but I can promise you, this is exactly what happened to me.
Years ago, Laura and I frequented an Italian restaurant that made all their own pasta. It was a treat to eat there. Not only did they make fresh pasta, but they threw handfuls of garlic cloves in almost every dish. That’s a story for another day, but for some reason or another, for me, the pasta thing stuck. I actually placed this endeavor on my culinary bucket list.
Today, I’d like to announce my new pasta machine. I purchased the “Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker” a few days ago from Amazon for $69.95. I’ve had this machine sitting in my cart for over a year. It used to cost over $100, but it went on sale. Since I’m now taking the “Italian Cooking” course at America’s Test Kitchen, it was time to make the leap. I have a feeling that my life will never be the same.
Since it’s become tradition around these parts for me to take a bunch of photographs of almost every new piece of kitchen gear I buy, I held to that today. I just finished with my photo shoot and picked out nine good ones. My intent with taking these photos was to get up close. I wanted to show off the details for any of you who are interested in such a machine. After looking through the shots, please let me know if you have any questions. I’d be happy to answer any and all for you.
This is the machine looking down from above. It’s made almost totally of stainless steel and is fairly heavy. I think it also looks great.
This knob controls how thick the pasta will be. When making pasta, you start off thick and incrementally reduce the thickness as you pass the pasta through over and over again. This knob has numbers imprinted into it so you know at what thickness you were and where you currently are.
People are often interested in how the handle inserts into the machine. To allay the concern, I’ll tell you that it simply slips inside. You can remove it just as easily. The hole has teeth all around while the handle only has two.
The clamp works similarly to the handle. There is a groove at the end of the clamp so you sort of hear a click as you attach the clamp to the machine. It holds the pasta maker to the table or counter very firmly.
This is the machine maker logo, which I think looks really cool. I had to take a photo of it.
Same thing here. Way too shiny and pretty not to photograph.
The handle for this machine is plastic. It’s not any plastic though – it’s pretty tough stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever have an issue with it.
This is a photo of the bottom of the clamp as it’s attached to the butcher’s block. If I had to guess, I’d say it could handle a thickness of about two inches. Maybe a little more. If you are interested, please let me know and I’ll grab the tape measure for exact numbers.
These are the cutting blades. They’re made from anodized aluminum and appear to be precision instruments.
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