My family gave me one about 10 years ago for Christmas. I can't remember the brand. But, I really enjoyed using it. Alas, my lifestyle hasn't been conducive to that sort of thing the past few years, and it got tossed into the small appliance purgatory in the garage, but I have been meaning to rescue it and put it to use.

One thing I really enjoyed was the ability to mix in exotic things to make flavored and colored pastas. Dried squash powder from butternut squash was a favorite -- four parts semolina to one part squash powder.

Mine is electric, with a clear chamber on top for mixing. After it's mixed, you push a lever to open a hatch into the extrusion chamber. It is sort of similar to a meat grinder/sausage maker in the way it works, with a turning screw that forces the dough into a disk with holes for the various shapes of pasta.

I have an Atlas manual pasta maker that I use all the time. Mine was made in Italy (not China) and came with spaghetti and fettuccine cutters.

It seems that the Chinese models are not getting great reviews on some of the sites I looked at, so you might want to consider that when purchasing.

I've developed my own egg noodle recipe that I like - I'd be happy to post it if you're interested.

Malna, I would like to try your recipe. I am already thinking of mashed potatoes and beef/chicken noodles. I am still deciding between the Atlas and Imperia.

Scott

Hi Scott,

I think I have a Roma but I'm not home now so I don't know for sure.
I got mine for Christmas and have used it steadily ever since, particularly since I learned on this forum, that I could work the dough in the stand-mixer or food processor instead of hand-kneading for 10 mins.

It is a little time-consuming-an hour or 2, at most but it's so much fun, for me, the time just flies by! I do it on the we/end when I have some free time.

I started by making fettucini and spaghetti-then taglietelle, paparadelle,lasagne sheets(soooo easy!)and finally stuffed ravioli. All turned out well.

I always let the pasta dry a little and then freeze it in suitable portion sizes.
I can't believe it's taken me this long to make pasta myself-it's so easy and the results are so awesome-it's very worth it!
I found 'Cooking with Jamie' by Jamie Oliver had a great pasta-making guide with pics and really good recipes that were very helpful to me getting started.

This forum is also very helpful and has tons of good ideas.

Have fun!

I had an Italian model for years and years. It finally got so dull and the cutters were mis-aligned and then used my mother's Italian pasta machine. Manual and crank type.

When hers finally bit the dust, I bought one locally in a kitchen store, and it was made in China. Not the same quality for sure, but I've been using it for a couple years, and it has been doing the job OK and was super cheap, like less than $30. I have hens, so mine gets a mega workout to use up eggs and we are big pasta and noodle eaters anyway.

I also use it to make sheets of pasta so I can make my own raviolis and also my own pierogies.

I have an Imperia, made in Italy, and I love it. I mix the dough in the FP, let it rest, roll it, let it rest, then cut it. There's nothing like fresh pasta.

I probably got it at one of those discount store like Ross or Tuesday Morning.

I think mine is Altea. I know it is Italian. Here you can find them cheap at the thrift stores. Also, ebay is another place to find the good ones cheaply.
I do mine just like momj47. The Cuisinart makes the dough so fast and easy. Just wonderful to have homemade pasta.

Scott,

Here ya go.

Egg Noodles
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup durum flour (or increase all-purpose flour to 2-1/2 cups)
1 pinch salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup *liquid
1 tablespoon butter

*If I want a "sturdier" noodle (say for beef and noodles) I use milk. For a more delicate noodle, I use water.

1. In large bowl, stir together flour and salt, and then add the beaten eggs, milk/water and butter. Knead dough
until smooth, about 5 minutes. Let rest in a lightly greased, covered bowl for at least 1 hour. (If using only
all purpose flour, you may not need to let the dough rest this long  maybe only 15 or 20 minutes.) Dough
should be sticky.
2. Divide dough into smaller portions. Keep dough covered while rolling out other portions. On a floured
surface, roll out to 1/4" to 1/8" thick. Take the rolled pieces and run them through a pasta machine. (If
youÂre a whiz with a rolling pin, ignore the pasta machine steps and roll out to about 1/16" thick.) On my
Atlas pasta machine, I use roller setting #5 for the first pass and #6 for the final pass. Sometimes I use #7 for a thinner noodle.
3. Cut into whatever size and shape you want. Let air dry (I lay them out on one of my grandmother's tablecloths)
before cooking. Heat pot of water to boiling, add a couple of pinches of salt. Cook until done (time will
depend how long youÂve let them dry). This recipe makes a lot of noodles, so we freeze the leftovers rather
than trying to completely dry them.

I was looking at both - really the only differences I could find were the warranty (Marcato Atlas-3 years and Imperia-1 year) and the Atlas has nine thickness settings vs. 6 for the Imperia. I think I've only used the middle three settings on mine in all these years, so I'm not sure that's a deal breaker or not.

Have fun - I love making noodles and pasta.

Thanks you malna, I think IÂll try your recipe first. I decided to order the Atlas . It should be at my house on Wednesday. I already purchased some durum flour. The weather is going to bad this weekend so I am going to can some beef broth and beef. Can you safely dry noodles with eggs and milk and store them in an airtight container ? I have a dehydrator. I would like to do that so I can make quick dinners when I am busy. Thanks again.

Scott

I also have an Atlas pasta maker made in Italy. I was concerned about cranking, but it is sooo easy. I attach the machine to my dining table and crank away. I don't have a food processor and didn't want to spend 10 minutes kneading the dough so I use my bread machine. I put the ingredients in the bread maker, press the dough setting and after about 10-15 minutes take out perfect dough. I have made ravioli that was so good, it would almost melt in your mouth. Made the ravioli for friends who came over for dinner and they have requested it again and again.

Good luck,
Teri

Thanks everyone, I received my pasta machine today, along with a Cuisinart food processor ( Linda Lou your helping me spend money :) I tried MalnaÂs recipe and everything turned out perfect! I made a big batch of chicken stock and made chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles, they were great. I dropped some off at work and everyone is texting me about how good it is. The food processor made the dough process simple. I sliced my veggies and chopped the chicken with it and was impressed. I never used a food processor before. I can see batches of AnnieÂs salsa in the canner this summer. Tomorrow IÂll can my chicken stock., make fresh spaghetti with my safely canned spaghetti sauce and I am going to try the pie crust recipe in the CuisinartÂs instruction book. I never made a homemade pie.

Thanks again, Scott

Wow, Scott - you've been busy! Your homemade chicken noodle soup sounds wonderful.

BTW, the pie crust recipe in the Cuisinart booklet is pretty good.

Scott, good going ! You will love that Cuisinart. I have had mine for about 25 years and it is still going strong. I love that machine. Not sure how I would live without it now.
Your noodle soup sounds wonderful, too.
Let us know how the pie turns out.

How do the machines that you all are describing compare to the food processor mounted ones? I have an old oster kitchen center and have yet to try the pasta attachment that squeezes pasta through the screw attachment.

Thanks in advance
Jon

jwangelin,
One of the reasons that some of us use the old fashioned pasta machines that roll the dough (I have an old Atlas from Italy) is that the dough squeezed through a pasta extruder is twice as dense as rolled pasta.
Can't remember where I read that but it makes sense to me.
One of the cool things you can do with the pasta extruder is to make all kinds of shapes that I can't.
I use a pretty simple recipe for my pasta as follows:
1/2 cup of all purpose flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup semolina
1 egg
Pinch of salt and olive oil
3 to 6 ounces of "greens" that have been blanched and squeezed dry (not too dry). I don't blend to a "cream" but leave the greens in little pieces.

Put blanched greens, olive oil, pinch of salt, and egg into a pint canning jar and screw on blender cutter and blend.
Either hand mix or drop all purpose flour/semolina into food processor followed by wet ingredients from pint canning jar.
Pulse until it comes together. You may have to add a small amount of water depending on how dry you squeeze your blanched greens.
Remove from food processor and kneed for 8 to 10 minutes (the bread machine sounds like a great idea). Cover and let fully hydrate and rest in fridge for 30 minutes or more.
Remove, run through pasta machine, and let pasta dry for at least 5 minutes so it won't clump together when boiled (I usually let it rest for at least 30 minutes).
Drop in rolling salted boiling water for only a couple of minutes - don't cook it for 10 minutes like the dry stuff.
Eat with your favorite sauce.

Note: You can make colored pasta out of many things. I use spinach and swiss chard from the garden. Use dried tomatoes run through a grinder for red pasta. For redder pasta, roast beets and make beet pasta.

Those colored pasta really get folks attention let me tell you. I have even made shrimp pasta with dried shrimp common in my area.

You are limited by your imagination. Once you get the rather dry consistency of the dough in your head (you don't want it to stick in the pasta machine) it will work. With respect to the dough being hard, I always use a rolling pin to initially flatten my dough. You need a "leading edge" on your dough ball not more than 1/8 inch thick or it will not feed into your pasta machine very easily or at all. Also, do not try to run more than a golf ball sized ball through your pasta machine at a time or your pasta sheet will be too long to handle unless you have help. Once you get good at it, you can try bigger balls of dough.
Hope this helps a little.
Jim in So Calif

I have an electric model I got roughly 24 years ago that works by extrusion. Then I have the old-fashioned hand cranked type. I can't recall the make of either, but the hand crank is from Italy. I love and use them both. I tend to use the hand crank mostly for making ravioli. We have never used those molds, we just make strips by hand wide enough to fold and crimp longwise. Anyway, I'm one that enjoys working dough by hand and pasta dough definitely takes muscle! Bread dough, it ain't! For fetuccini or spaghetti for one meal I use the electric. It's a pain to take apart and clean, but it's certainly quick. I wish mine made a whole pound at a time instead of a half pound, however. When I make ravioli, I make them by the hundreds and freeze them, so that's when the hand crank machine comes out because I need wide strips the electric machine simply can't produce.

Lisa