Italian Double Cutter Pasta Machine, Homemade Pasta Maker with Detachable Wooden Handle, Adjustable Dial with Six Thickness Settings

Before purchasing this product I read many reviews on this website and others - most positive, but some rather scathing and decided that the only way to truly find out was to give it a try! This little machine is absolutely fantastic. It is a weighty piece of equipment, once fastened to the work surface (with the supplied clamp) I have found it to be very secure, no unsteadiness and extremely sturdy. Pasta rolls out evenly until the required thickness is achieved. Changing the roller depth is very easy - I had some concerns regarding the management of the machine whilst winding with one hand and thereby having just one hand free to guide the pasta - but those concerns have proved to be unfounded. I work at my pace with the machine and have had success every time! I would suggest that anyone purchasing this product who has never made pasta dough before does a little research into pasta recipes. I tried the recipe in the instruction booklet and it wasn't to my liking; fortunately it didn't go entirely to waste because I used it to clean the machine from the inevitable oil traces left from manufacture. To make my dough I use 110grams of 00 Flour to 1 large egg, but since egg sizes vary and we are all individuals with differing tastes/expectations, experiment to find your perfect pasta. The instruction booklet has very limited information but in all honesty you don't need a degree to operate this equipment! I have used this little machine that does such a great job almost every day, my cupboards once full of various types of dried pasta are now cleared - no more shop bought pasta. The results speak for themselves, lovely silky slightly al-dente pasta with all manner of sauces and fillings. My only regret - I didn't buy one sooner!

Pros: The machine is easy to set up and put away. The rollers really require very little maintenance, and it's very easy to use. I found one of the accessories a bit flimsy (the metal tray that hooks on to it), but otherwise it's a very sturdy piece of kit. Cons: I'm not totally satisfied with the mechanism by which it hooks on to the work bench. I find that I can't ever get it to be completely motionless, particularly when you start with the thicker bit of pasta. Overall I love this machine. It really is so easy to make great spaghetti, fettuccine, lasagne sheets, and anything else. I've never owned one before, so I can't compare it to anything, but based on the fact that I had never made fresh pasta before, I would say that this is an absolute must if you want to try your hand. It might come across a little bit pricey, given some of the alternatives, but it really pays to have a sturdy machine.

This is a must-have item for your kitchen as it's super simple to use and easy to clean. Since we bought ours, we have been making fresh pasta a few times a week and haven't gone back to store-bought pasta. Imperia is the go-to machine in Italy and we now know why. It's sturdy and solidly built - it's a true workhorse. The basic model allows you to make sheet pasta, perfect for lasagna, orecchiette, farfalle, tortellini, and ravioli, as well as spaghetti and tagliatelle. What more do you want from one machine? The only slight downside to the machine is that it takes up space in the kitchen (just like any other appliance) and needs to be fixed to a counter. We used to fix it to our dining table as our kitchen was too small and make pasta for the week. This is a fantastic machine and probably one of the best kitchen purchases we've made in a long time!

Great quality and very easy to use, and if you're trying to impress someone, nothing says you've made an effort more than homemade pasta. I had never attempted to make pasta before, but rolled out not-too-bad ravioli on the first go (actually technically agnolotti - i.e. semicircles... I just cut circles of pasta with a cookie cutter, put a spoonful of filling in then folded them in half). I now regularly make spaghetti and fettuccine and freeze what I don't use on the day. The taste is substantially better than store-bought "fresh" pasta. One down-side with this machine is that my kitchen bench top is much too thick to fit the clamp, so either I have to use the kitchen table or hold the machine as I go (but I do have a much thicker than standard bench top, so unlikely to be an issue for many people). My only other gripe is that the instructions are very brief, so I wasn't sure, for example, whether I should always roll the pasta to the thinnest setting, or whether different settings are better for particular pastas. So there is a degree of trial and error. A couple of tips: (1) fresh pasta cooks in no time: don't over boil it; (2) you definitely need to use "00" grade flour, but all the supermarket's have it, (3) Jamie's Kitchen has some great not-too-traditional pasta fillings and sauces which will have dinner guests licking their plates. Good luck.

Never having made fresh pasta before, it's something I'd always wanted to try but always thought it would be pretty hard to do, so having read some of the other reviews for this pasta machine it filled me with confidence to give it a try. Without testing it beforehand, I decided to use it to make pasta for a dinner party and despite only preparing the dough beforehand, found no difficulty in rolling out the pasta, cutting it into strips and leaving it to dry out only 15 mins or so before serving the starter. The pasta was so fine and tasty my guests wouldn't have believed I'd made it if they hadn't seen me cutting it - it was actually a bit of a talking piece!! Easy to use, easy to clean, and well worth the money.

I received the pasta maker yesterday and was really looking forward to it. So much so that I paid £4 extra to get it few days earlier. We made the first pasta yesterday and it works well. Then hand washed it and let it on the surface to dry. Just to find it all rusty this morning. Only after the first wash. This is completely unacceptable given that the product was not cheap. Really disappointed.

This arrived today and I couldn't resist having a go at making some pasta straight away. It was gloriously user friendly, the only problem I had was with finding a suitable place to clamp the machine on in my kitchen as it requires a pretty thick table/counter overhang to attach to. My daughters loved turning the handle and handling the pasta, and took particular delight in watching the unusual shaped pasta shapes emerge from the gnocchi attachment (ingenious design, incredibly simple and effective). I can see that this will give us years of good service and family participation in meal preparation. (January 2010) I have now had this pasta machine for about a year and a half, and it is as tough and as brilliant as I had hoped that it would be. I make a really huge batch of pasta about once a fortnight, and have a few recommendations for use which might help new users. Use extra flour to dust the pasta before you feed it through to make sheets, not too much flour, but a little definitely helps it to feed through well, and not to get stuck to everything. This next advice is for using with the gnocchi attachment, which is fantastic. The more flour you smother your sausages of pasta in before you feed them into the gnocchi cutter, the better they work, and the cleaner the machine stays. It is much easier covering them in flour before you put them through the machine than afterwards. This means that they are much less likely to stick to other individual ones on your tray. I would also recommend at least partly freezing them whilst spread out on metal baking trays, then putting them together into a plastic bag to freeze them - again, it means that they are much less likely to get stuck together and form a solid lump.

This pasta machine is simply amazing. Small, for home use only, but very high quality. I wouldn't recommend any other pasta machine, Imperia is the only brand you should buy, if you buy any other you'll be buying a second one soon. This machine comes with a double cutter for spaghetti or tagliatelle, but Imperia has a full range of accessories that will fit it. Even though it is not stated here, mine also came with a little tray that sits on top of the machine that helps position the pasta sheet while passing it through the machine and it is very handy. The only downside I have to say about this machine is that the handle comes out very easily as it doesn't "click" in place, so sometimes it comes out in my hand while I'm passing the pasta sheet through the machine, which is a bit annoying, but not a major problem. So, if you're planning on buying a small pasta machine, this is the one, it is definitely worth paying a little bit more for Imperia instead of getting any other brand.