Most of the time, I love to cook. And I love the DIY aspects of cooking that make me think of cooking as a craft. As a result, I like to cook from scratch.
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Marcato’s Atlas 150 Handcranked Pasta Machine
My belated birthday present from Jeff was a pasta machine, the Atlas 150 from Marcato, their original pasta making machine. It comes in anodized aluminum in several colors or the chrome steel model that I chose. I think Jeff bought mine on Amazon.
My friend Luciana who is a freelance chef in Rome works as an ambassador for Marcato, demonstrating their pasta machines in department stores and on videos. Here she has a cameo in a video for a more advanced machine, the Otello!
Basic Pasta Dough Recipe
Because this was the first time I had ever made pasta, I decided to follow the basic pasta recipe in the Marcato manual. Fortunately, I had the ingredients on hand: 250 g 00 flour, 250 g semolina flour and five eggs. That was it.
Trying to Make the Pasta
The manual said to put the flours on a work surface and make a well in the center. OK so far. But I didn’t make the well quite big enough to hold five eggs. I was supposed to gently beat the eggs to break the yolks and combine a little flour at a time till it was all incorporated. Because the eggs spilled over the top of my flour mountain, I just tried to incorporate the yolks and whites as best I could with my hands. What a mess. It produced a very sticky dough. I added a little water because, though the dough was sticky, it felt dry. I cleaned off my hands and got a fork to help make a solid ball that I flattened into a disc.
Next, I covered the dough with plastic wrap, and let it rest on the counter for about an hour while I worked on the challah that I was also making.
At the end of an hour, I cut the disc into four pieces. I chose one to work with, and covered the other three with plastic wrap so they wouldn’t dry out.
Rolling out dough isn’t my strong suit, unfortunately. I was supposed to roll the dough into a rectangle that would fit in the machine. My rolling was a little wonky, but I was able to use it in the machine. I started out with the roller opening on 0, the widest setting. I cranked the dough through the rollers. Then I turned the dial to 1, a little narrower, and cranked the dough through. Next, set the dial to 3, and cranked it through. Finally, I set it to 6, much narrower, and cranked the dough through. At that point, it was very, very thin. It seemed too thin, and the dough ripped in a couple of places. I cut the ripped dough off and worked with what was left.
My Atlas 150 makes three kinds of pasta:
- lasagna
- fettuccine
- taglioni (a very thin, delicate pasta that looks to me like angel hair pasta)
I can buy accessories (other blades) that make different types of pasta. But before I do that, I need to master these three first. 🙂
I decided to make fettuccine. It seemed like a good bet for my first foray into making pasta with a hand cranked machine. I put the thin dough through the fettuccine blade, and it produced fettuccine! But the strands stuck together, unfortunately, as they folded themselves onto the bottom of the machine as they came out of the blades.
Sadly, the manual doesn’t give the novice much instruction on exactly what to do. So I tried to find a video of Lidia Bastianich, the TV chef and restauranteur, making pasta. I had seen it on TV a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn’t find it. Nevertheless, I seemed to remember her flouring her workspace as well as the pasta dough. So I tried that. I thought it helped.
But I didn’t have a real plan for what to do with the dough once it was cut into fettuccine. I don’t have a pasta drying rack. I had a cotton dishtowel that I sprinkled with water to make it damp, and I sprinkled a little more flour on it too. I started out by laying the individual strands on the towel, but I quickly used up the space on the first towel and my countertop space.
Then I remembered Lidia making little “nests” with the strands, so I did that.
I worked through all of the dough, and I ended up with a lot of fettuccine, and quite a few little nests on damp, floured towels.
Cooking the Pasta
I boiled the water, and was excited to cook my fettuccine.
But when I took out each of the little nests of fettuccine to add it to the boiling water, the strands kind of melded into each other. Ugh. I couldn’t separate most of the strands. I tried putting each of the nests, one at a time, into the boiling water, and I tried to separate the strands with my pasta fork, but it didn’t really work.
Disaster. Fiasco. Failure.
I managed to save enough independent strands of fettuccine that there was enough for Jeff and me to eat as a side dish for our dinner.
But to make matters worse, the couple of small blocks of parmigiano reggiano that I had in the cheese drawer of my fridge were either dried out or growing mold. Same with the pecorino romano. I had no Italian cheese that I could use. I ended up grating French Camembert and used that with a little olive oil.
Oh Well!
The fettuccine was edible, but it wasn’t good. Because I was worried about the dough ripping, I didn’t make it thin enough. So, it was too thick.
Jeff asked me what I thought, and I said it was terrible. He said it wasn’t terrible, but a step better than terrible. We couldn’t think of the right descriptor, lol.
So I need to learn the fundamentals of pasta making. I welcome any advice or help from any of you who know how to make fresh pasta that doesn’t stick together and doesn’t develop holes in the dough when you put it through the slimmest setting.
But I don’t want to give up. I just found the directions on the Marcato website (though they are not quite complete), and I am off to watch pasta making videos on the Marcato website and on YouTube, or to buy a book on pasta making!
LOL
From what you wrote I could almost see what you were going through. I have watched many cooking shows with people learning to make pasta. It is a big learning curve but I am sure you will get to the point of your pasta being good.
Thank you, thank you, Gloria, for having faith in me! xoxo I’m determined, so hopefully, I’ll get there eventually!
My husband and I used to make pasta with that machine. We had a family of four so making a lot worked well. But it was always a mess and the kitchen was a disaster after. It’s a fun memory but one I gladly gave up. You’ll do it though. I’m sure.
I need to consult with you, Marcia!!!
What a frustrating experience for you, Allison! My guess is that it is always semi-disastrous the first time, and my guess is that it will get progressively easier! At least you salvaged enough that you and Jeff were able to have a sit dish of your fettuccini!
Lola Seicento recently posted…Mielle Organics Has Time-Saving Beauty Hacks for the Fall
LOL this is a great sotry and sounds like my weekend attempting to make bagels for the first time. Something went wrong but I kept pushing forward and let that be a lesson that you cannot fix things later in the process! LOL I will try again next weekend because I love a good doughy salt bagel!
Pasta making is not difficult, but it takes A LOT of practice. First off, did you use the 00 past flour. One brand is Caputo’s, King Arthur’s also sells it, more expensive of course. Secondly, I would get the ravioli molds and master ravioli before you try making the cut pastas. Just a thought. Be sure your scale is accurate and use the gram measurements. Weight everything, even the eggs. European eggs are much smaller than American eggs. And honestly, I can make ravioli and I am satisfied with that. Good luck!
Thanks so much, Denise! Yes, I used 250 g of Caputo’s 00 flour. I had it on hand because I use it when I make pizza. The recipe also called for 250 g of semolina, and I had that on hand for pizza making. I have a scale because I am a bread baker and I weigh everything in grams. The recipe in the manual goofed. On their website, it said “5 eggs and water weighing 250g”. In the manual, it just said 5 eggs. I didn’t realize that European eggs were smaller than American eggs! Thank you for telling me!! So I probably added too many eggs and that’s why they didn’t fit in the well of the flours. Also, I did add some water because the dough was too dry initially. My problem was the dough was so soft and warm that it stuck together. Next time, I will put the dough I’m not working with in the refrigerator. Also, I just bought a flour/sugar/cinnamon dispenser from Marcato and I will use that to sprinkle flour on the dough sheets after they come out of the roller and maybe again before I run the dough through fettuccine blade. I have a feeling that Jeff may buy me a drying rack. I will try again. But it took hours, and I wasted 5 eggs, lol! I’m so impressed that you make ravioli. Once I conquer fettuccine, I will try ravioli. Right now, I don’t want to have to deal with making a filling too 😉
Allison, you are on your way to success! I am sure your next batch will be better. Definitely let Jeff get you the drying rack – he did get you started:). And that’s a great idea about the shaker for evenly distributing the flour, I will have to buy one of those. Good luck and keep us posted on your efforts!
Thanks again, Denise! My Marcato flour shaker arrived today, and it’s beautiful. I will post my next try, lol!
Thanks for sharing the basic pasta recipe! We have an attachment for our mixer, and man, I find it hard to use, but I’ll share it with my hubby!
Michelle+|+con+limón,+please recently posted…Cómo hacer una piñata en 5 pasos
I hope you do try to make pasta with your mixer. LMK how it goes!