Automatic vs Manual

Which is better?  Automatic or manual.  I should have gone back to when I was learning to drive.  I could never drive a stick shift, why would I think I could use a manual pasta-machine?  As cute as I think I am cranking away on my manual pasta maker...it sure is alot of work!  Who knew you needed a whole team of people to help?  Which is actually how I felt when I tried to drive a stick shift...I needed someone else to shift the gears while I steered.  

When I first got my hand-crank machine, I felt so sophisticated and serious.  Which is actually the feeling I wanted!   I wanted to get intimate with my pasta...which I did.   I was covered in flour, dough in my nails, and I had egg up to my elbows trying not to disturb the well I created.  I had to reball the dough when the strands got too long for me to handle.  I wasted perfectly good pasta makings when I couldn't feed the fettucine cutter on track with one hand.

I didn't realize the output of pasta you could obtain from batch of dough ...until I went to my parent's house for the holidays.  Man, what a difference!  My mother had a KitchenAid pasta attatchment.  It mixed the dough in the bowl while all I had to do was pour in the ingredients.  I didn't lose any flour on the counter from doing like I did when I did it by hand.  Both of my hands were free to feed, or steer, if you will, the dough into the fettucine cutters.  The automatic pasta maker was so easy to use and handle.  It made me feel like a professional!  Although, my hand-crank machine is not that efficient, it is fun and I can always use it for making pasta for a romantic dinner at home.