Making Homemade Pasta (excitement and trepidation)

Making Homemade PastaEver since I read a memoir about homemade noodles in Bridges journal several years ago I have been enthralled by the idea of making my own pasta. Still, I am yet to do so.

Why? Mainly intimidation. what if I bomb? What if i make a mess of it aiaiaiai… can you tell I have a perfectionist streak?

Recently a channel here in Trinidad began showing programs from the Food Network for between 90 minutes during the week to 3 hours a day on a Sunday.

I had not seen the Food Network since 1999 when I left Connecticut to return to my homeland. In fact I credit my discovery of the Food Network (back in 1995) with my desire to learn all things culinary 🙂

Watching Mario Batali on Molto Mario, as he creates his own pastas made me revisit that desire to also have my own noodles boiling before my eyes. I’m still nervous but I’m determined, more than ever, to get past that now!

I’ve noticed that many of the cooks on the Food Network use a KitchenAid pasta attachment

Unfortunately I don’t have a KitchenAid and it doesn’t appear that there are any pasta attachments for our old and faithful Sunbeam Mixmaster (if anyone knows of any, feel free to let me know). So… I’ve been searching Amazon for pasta machines. Right now I’ve narrowed my choices down to the following.

Lello Pasta Maker 3000 ProLello Pasta Maker 3000 Pro

Product Features

  • Kneads & mixes the pasta
  • Makes 3 pounds of pasta in about 20 minutes
  • Large 300 watt motor
  • 8 pasta discs to make a variety of different pastas
  • Just flour & eggs to make great pasta

Atlas Manual Pasta MachineAtlas Manual Pasta Machine (optional motor attachment available)
Product Features

    • Model 150
    • Table top manual pasta maker
    • 1.5 mm and 6.5 mm cutters
    • Clamp model
    • Hand operated cutter

If anyone has any personal experience with any of these models, or wants to recommend another feel free to do so by leaving a comment. You can be sure that once I’ve made my first batch I’ll be posting about it here! 🙂