MARCATO Made in Italy Atlas 150 Classic Manual Pasta Maker Machine, Chrome Steel. Makes Lasagna, Fettuccine & Tagliolini .

Excellent machine. I read many of the reviews (so helpful, thank you) before purchasing this. It's a beautiful gadget, very solid. I used Biba Caggiano's recipe (Trattoria) of 2 eggs and 1 1/4 C of flour and it's come out perfectly every time (have now made it about 8x). I mixed the dough by hand once (making a well with the flour, etc.) and all the other times I've used the Cuisineart to mix it quickly. No noticeable difference, a lot less mess with the Cuisineart. Also, based on recommendations in the reviews, I watched a few videos on You Tube before I tried it the first time. There is not much variation out there (from Mario Batali to Marcella Hazan) so I've stuck with Caggiano's ratio of flour to egg since it works so well. A few reviews said you need help, but I find (while help is more fun) that as long as the machine is clamped to the counter, I can easily do it myself. I wanted fresh pasta for canneloni and lasagne noodles (I prefer dried pasta for everything else) and these come out beautifully and delicious. I did make some fettucini since it comes with that attachment and it was also good. I recommend going through the process to #7 and then running it through 2x on #7 rather than going to #8 which is a bit too thin for fettucine. 8 is great for lasagne sheets. I paid attention to everyone who said DON'T wash with water and I find that if you wipe the machine (while cranking the handle) well with a damp cloth or paper towel, it comes quite clean. I also run a paper towel through it once I've done the wiping down part. I'm comfortable that it's clean. When the fresh pasta craze hit in the 90's (?) I thought eveyrone was nuts. Dried pasta is so good (Di Cecci being my favorite) and why would anyone want to go to this much trouble to make fresh pasta, which to me always seems foamy in restaurants. I only got this machine because I was giving a young friend (13) a cooking lesson, and I thought we'd go all the way by making our own noodles. What fun! There's something really satisfying about doing this and I found myself coming up with excuses to make a batch of pasta and mostly giving it away (I still prefer dried for strands or shapes, but you can't beat fresh lasagne sheets). The "fresh" lasagne sheets you can buy at the market is still foamy to me, but what you'll make at home with this machine tastes exactly right. Have fun!

Heavy duty and works quite well. I did not experience any issues with the handle falling out. I suspect those reviewers didn't push it in hard enough for it to seat in and "click". I was considering getting a cheap alternative in the $40 range, but decided this is one of those things I won't use too often, but it's a lifetime purchase.From the way it is built with heavy duty stainless steel (no rust spots as again I noticed in photo reviews of other cheaper products) I don't ever expect to have to replace this. There is a motor option you can get, but the hand crank seemed easy enough and I was able to do it all by myself (holding the dough in one hand, turning the crank with the other). But if you are making pasta a lot, the motor would likely speed things up quite a bit.

I went old school with this pasta maker because my automatic pasta extrusion machine was very picky about the dough consistency, and it got to be way more hassle than it was worth. This manual pasta maker solved all of those problems! It is very well built, easy to use, and should last a very long time! It is also far better designed and constructed than the less expensive ones. But better to buy once & cry once!You still have to follow the 'classic' dough recipe but it is so much more forgiving than the automatic pasta makers if your proportions are off a little. Kneading the dough by hand does take a bit of work but that just makes it even more worth it. That said, once you start flattening and cutting your pasta with this little gem it makes the whole process just plain fun! Oh... and the pasta is fantastic!!The most important thing is DO NOT WASH this!! You need to read the instructions on how to dry clean the internal parts. It takes a little figuring out, especially how to remove the brush support rods and remove the brushes, but after the first time it gets easy.

We've started milling our own wheat and were looking at all the possibilities open to us now that wheat is no longer off limits for us. I stick to bread loaves and rolls and my daughter is branching out to chocolate chip cookies, pies, cobbler, and now pasta! She had started making pasta by hand and it tasted great so I bought her this pasta machine and a drying rack and now she cranks it out in no time! She said she's had no issues with the machine at all as far as it leaving black streaks or metal shavings on the dough like I've read in reviews of other machines. I plan to buy another one for my daughter in law as an anniversary gift.