TorontoStar – Cookbook authors and chefs Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli recommend their favourite pasta makers — one old-school, and one worth-the-splurge pick.
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When it comes to pasta, for Scott Tacinelli and Angie Rito, the husband-and-wife team behind New York City’s Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Don Angie, nothing beats handmade.
“Making pasta is a very rewarding experience, and it can be very relaxing in a weird way,” says Rito, who co-authored the new cookbook “Italian American” with Tacinelli. In it, the couple explores classic Italian family recipes (expect lots of red sauce), done in their modern American style (lasagna pinwheels, for example).
To make fresh noodles in their own home, the pair have two pasta machines they love for different reasons. The first is a tried-and-true Imperia hand-crank roller ($100, amazon.ca), which is a staple in many Italian kitchens — in fact, theirs once belonged Tacinelli’s grandmother. The chrome-plated steel machine is not only durable, but also beautifully straightforward. “It’s not intimidating; there aren’t all of these bells and whistles,” says Rito. “There’s a roller, a cutter and a crank to make it all go. That’s it.”
The included roller is six inches wide, making it suitable for sheets of noodles, or spaghetti and fettuccine, and there are also two cutters for different widths. Attachments for other noodle shapes are sold separately. It’s easy to clean, too: just wipe it down.
