Why I love my pasta machine
My Marcato Atlas pasta machine sat lonely in a cupboard for years before I finally got round to tackling its usage. It took a few goes for it to become second nature – before I stopped wondering exactly how to put it all together and stopped thinking that I wasn’t quite sure how to use it. But once it did, this pasta machine became completely indispensable.
This heavy-duty machine is made by one of Italy’s top producers and it has never let me down. I had the opportunity to test it against Jamie Oliver’s offering the other day, and where the same pasta dough was completely churned up by Jamie’s machine, the Marcato Atlas pasta machine rolled it smoothly, easily and efficiently.
How to use a pasta machine
Now I’ve got the hang of it, I make fresh pasta every week. In fact, it’s become something of a bonding exercise with me and my siblings. We get together, drink booze and make delicious pasta. It’s fab.
Lasagne sheets, all kinds of stuffed dumplings, spaghetti and tagliatelle, fat juicy noodles. Any surplus can be dried safely and successfully (full instructions in my guide on how to make fresh pasta – coming soon!). But there is rarely any surplus in my experience.
Another great use for my Marcato Atlas pasta machine is filo pastry.
I repeatedly turn to my filo dough recipe and my whole wheat filo dough recipe to wrap lovely vegetable pies and börek. My Spinach and feta pie (below) or Vegetable pie with ricotta are fantastic picnic food, or make this Mushroom Wellington the flaky, crispy centrepiece of your next roast dinner.
Wafer thin Asian dumpling wrappers too go through the pasta machine.
You don’t get any dough spring back, unlike with a rolling pin. This makes it great for rolling doughs that you don’t want to change shape after cooking – like these Vegan potstickers with tofu.
My Marcato Atlas pasta machine is absolutely one of my most valued pieces of kit. I went away for three weeks recently without it and regretted it almost immediately. I won’t make that mistake again.
Add to your kitchen collection
What pieces of kitchen equipment can you not live without? Let me know in the comments!
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