MarcatoPasta Machine, Pasta Maker, Fresh Pasta Extruder, Manual, 5 Dies Included, for Bucatini, Fusilli, Maccheroni, Maccheroncini, Rigatoni, Made in Italy. Model: Regina

Brilliant machine to do the ‘hollow types of pasta

I ummed and ahed about buying this.We make home made pasta quite often using the flat noodle type machine but I liked the idea of cooking with other shapes too.Anyway having bought it ,I found it works pretty well providing you take care with the consistency of the dough.I completely ignored the recipe as we already have one that works every time...I make mine like this...11.5 ounces of bread flour + 1 Egg processed to ball up and add a very little water drop by drop until it is soft and squidgy like play doughI mix it in the food processor.. That makes enough for 4. Home made pasta is more filling than ready made.If you make it too dry, it will be REALLY hard to crank through the machine (see below).The machine has Metal/plastic disks with the pasta shapes cut out like a play dough extruder but more sophisticated..The set up is rather like a mincer ,it clamps to a table.but wouldnt clamp to our kitchen worksurface because of the need for the handle to have space to turn ..Put the disk in the end and fix it in place.Break off a sausage of dough about 3 inches long and as thick as your thumb.Feed it in and then turn the handle.It takes a while to go through all your dough .As each piece becomes shapes, cut them off and lay on clean tea towels to dry a little.When all is done, pop them in boiling water and cook.I think it takes about 20 minutes to get enough pasta shapes for 4 peopleThere are two handle holes..Only one is for the cutting action.Check with the leaflet before cranking to make sure you are using the right one.(The other is if you have a different attachment detailed in the leaflet)Cleaning is a little tedious because you need to carefully dismantle the cutting disk to get all the dough out.There will be about an inch left that wont crank through on the axle and some gets caught in the actual cutter disk..A toothpick helps.Other shaped disks store inside the body of the machine which is useful.If you find the crank handle impossible or very stiff, save yourself some grief ,take your dough and stick it back in your food processor and add a few drops of water.Take a little bit and try it for 'feel'. You soon get to know how moist to make it.This was a good purchase for us because we already make pasta and so it adds to the arsenal of shapes we can produce.I think you do need patience though.If you are looking for instant effortless pasta shapes, this might not be as useful as it appears.My advice would be to try some home made pasta without a machine a few times and if you find that fun and fulfilling, then this will be quicker and easier and just as fun , else probably not.

What I expected, but great fun for my husband who makes good pasta and for us who eat it. Better than a fun factory.

The plastic cog broke shortly after purchase. I got a replacement quickly enough,but tge aame fault occurred. All the internal parts are hard plastic. Nevertheless, not worth the money. There is no spare part replacement availablr for eithef of the two internal cogs, which are the parts most likely to break. The warranty by tge manudacturer is for two years. Unfortunately, I was two months out to make any claim. I had raeely used the machine, but when I dud I found it difficult to turn the handle, despite meticulously following instructions with regard to making tge dough gof the pasta. I would therefore advise against buying thus product. Plastic will always let you down at dome point. I was disappointed because I wrongly believed Marcato to be a reliable company. Their metal products are okay and can be relied upon.

The item was poorly packed which resulted in the wire on the cutter being snapped. Also the metal handle is slightly off making it jam against the locking ring nut. As such I have not used the item yet.

This is a really solid machine, especially when you bear in mind its price. Very easy to use and to clean.

This make pasta ... but you need to be quite strong to turn the lever. I also found that the pasta dough has to be very dry otherwise the pasta comes out like soft dough out the other side and does not hold its shape at all. This is also not easy to clean, best to leave the remaining dough to dry in there and pick it off over night. Pasta also came out very thick. I am going to keep trying to use this machine but so far I do not recommend.

Good quality product delivered on time