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Pasta Roller Review
While I've owned a Stand Mixer for a year or so, I never thought of making my own Pasta,I remember all the work my Mom use to do making her own with a Manual machine. Then a friend of mine got the set for a birthday present. So my Wife & I went over his house for dinner to see how it worked, I ordered mine the next day. Very easy to use, The dough roller is the greatest and I've even used it to roll the dough out for making Raviolis. The key is in mixing up the Dough. I use 3 Cups Flour to 3 large eggs with a tablespoon of water, I 'borrowed' this off somebody on You-Tube and it hasn't failed me yet. The Kitchen-aid Recipe just doesn't get it, The dough comes out too wet and then you're forever adding flour to get it just right. HOW IT WORKS Step 1 You Attach the Rollers to the Mixer, After of course Mixing your Dough in the Mixer Bowl. Start the Mixer on Speed (2) Then you tear of a chunk of dough, flatten it out with your palm. Make sure the Rollers are set at (1) and feed your dough thru, Fold in Half and repeat about 4-5 times, Then set the Rollers to (2) and Feed once or twice Then Set Rollers to (3) and Feed and so forth until you are satisfied with the end result. I'd highly recommend getting the pasta rack to hang the sheets of dough and also the cut pasta once you get to that point, It beats laying it out on the counter and it's cheap enough not to break the bank. Norpro Pasta Drying Rack Step 2 After you get all your dough rolled out, It's time to cut it. Remove the Dough Roller from the Mixer and attach the Cutter of your choice. Spaghetti or Linguini - Attach it to the mixer and turn on the mixer to speed setting (2) - Feed your dough sheet thru and out comes Spaghetti/Linguini noodles. Throw them in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes and Bon Appetite. Step 3 Never Clean the Rollers with Water -- Basically if the any hard dough left on, It just falls off if you shake it. The only thing I don't like, Is I always forget to reset the roller when starting to roll a New piece of dough. Too bad they don't have some kind of automatic reset. For those that don't know what I mean, You start by feeding your dough on the widest roller setting (1) and work your way up. Setting (5) is usually fine with me, But it does go all the way to (8) I believe. All in All it takes me about 45 minutes to make up a batch of fresh pasta, And that's with letting it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes after mixing. I made a batch last night that I thought was just Ok, My Wife kept saying how fresh the noodles were and what a difference it was over the dry Box Pasta. So I guess that's good enough for me. Mmmm...it's awesome! I enthusiastically endorse this pasta-making attachment set for KitchenAid mixers. I've tried the extrusion-style pasta makers. I've tried the hand-crank machines. I've never had good results making pasta until I tried this approach. You get one pasta sheet roller and two pasta cutters, all three impressively solid of construction. The process is just 3 steps: (1) Make pasta dough, which can be as simple as plain old all-purpose flour, egg, water and salt. This can easily be done in the bowl of your KitchenAid in less than 5 minutes. I have the smallest, 300-watt model, about 20 years old, and it works just fine. (2) Mount the roller attachment in the power hub at the front of your KitchenAid, and run your dough through repeatedly to get sheets as thin as you wish. (3) Switch out the roller attachment for either of the cutters (spaghetti or fettucine), to cut your pasta sheets into individual noodle strands. One of these days I'll probably pick up an inexpensive pasta drying rack, but until then I'm doing fine twirling the noodles into nests or letting them dry on plastic clotheshangers. The owner's manual comes with five recipes to get you started: basic egg pasta using ordinary all-purpose flour, semolina egg pasta, light wheat pasta, whole wheat pasta, and spinach pasta. I had excellent results from my very first batch, and experienced none of the problems with initial oil or metal contamination in the roller and cutters that others have reported. I have found the equipment easy to clean after use. I see no reason why these tools couldn't be used effectively to make other kinds of noodles, or pasta sheets for ravioli or lasagna. Plus, it's so darn fun that you will want to invite a friend or some kids into the kitchen to make pasta with you. My experience is that fresh spaghetti cooks in 2 to 3 minutes, so it's hard to imagine a fresh dinner that could be made any more easily. If you are curious about how these attachments work, several videos are posted on YouTube which demonstrate the process. Go for it--you won't regret it! Once you have tasted your own fresh pasta, the dried stuff from the store will taste like the cardboard box it came in. Fantabulous After watching a Top Chef episode where one of the contestants made fresh pasta for her lasagna, to rave reviews, I became inspired to make my own as well. This made it a cinch. I used the recipe included in manual and followed directions. I was very nervous but this was a breeze. I had no residual gunk on my pasta as other reviewers have had. It did a beautiful job and was very forgiving when I did not feed dough as straight as I could have. Just a note, I did require more water than was asked for in the recipe but I was clear, per instructions, that the dough could not be sticky so that was my guide. Buy this now!! Fresh pasta is so much better than store bought. Yankee pasta! I had not one problem with this the first time I made pasta in it. Everything came out perfect! I had read other reviews and had my doubts but no specks of metal nor anything else. I followed the directions to a tee and my fetticini came out perfect - tonights supper. Great addition to my mixer I will admit after reading some of the other reviews before buying this, I was a little nervous about using it. I am so happy I did. I make a different pasta recipe almost every night! The roller is also great for helping roll other doughs too like pie dough! This was a great investment and addition to my stand mixer! | |
