Gourmet Pasta Press

Ever since getting the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment, we completely stopped buying store bought pasta. Homemade is just always better. I had been eyeing this pasta press for a while, and it definitely expanded what we can make at home! The variety of shapes is the biggest win. It makes pasta nights feel more fun and elevated, and we use it at least once a week in our house. If you love pasta, this is such a great addition to your KitchenAid setup. That said, there are a couple things to be aware of. There is a bit of a learning curve with dough consistency, and cleanup requires some patience. I’ve found that lightly sprinkling flour inside the attachment and occasionally dusting the bottom where the pasta extrudes helps prevent sticking and keeps everything running smoothly. Also, let the dough dry completely before cleaning, it makes a huge difference and brushes off easily once dry. The metal tool will be your best friend! I did have to get a replacement initially because the first one arrived with a small cosmetic defect. Also, the packaging could definitely be improved. Both times the cleaning pick and pasta discs were loose and moving around in the box. Thankfully, the replacement itself worked perfectly with no defects. Because it comes with multiple small parts, I also recommend getting some kind of storage solution. I paired mine with a 3D printed caddy from Amazon, which keeps everything organized with my other attachments. Overall, despite the minor packaging issues, this is absolutely worth it if you enjoy making fresh pasta and don’t mind a little extra effort for a much better result! 🍝

The pasta I made is completely gluten free and grain free since I used red lentil flour! I have wanted this attachment for some time now but I was concerned that a wheat free dough wouldn't work, would be too sticky, or wouldn't run through. I have not had commercially made pasta in over 4 years since my body went haywire from a worsening chronic illness and suddenly could no longer eat wheat/gluten or corn. Within 6 months my life had been dumped on my head. I would react to the corn added into salt and even in tap water, leaving me in excruciating pain and violently sick. Also because of my chronic illness I have very low energy levels and get worn out exceedingly easily. So even though I figured out my pasta dough a couple years ago I rarely make it because it is so physically demanding. Plus I specifically missed macaroni noodles. I was thrilled to see the orange dough coming out of the machine the first time! It will certainly take some practice to get the noodle lengths correct but that's not a big deal at all. I think my dough is still a little too sticky as the large macaroni kept regularly sealing on the end. Next time I'll add a bit more flour to see if it works better. Red lentil flour makes for a sticky dough anyway simply because it is not wheat so it behaves differently. Out of all my tests of the kinds of flour I can still have (brown rice, garbanzo/chickpea) only the red lentil held together when cooked. Red lentil flour is super easy to grind at home. I use my WonderMill for convenience and because I have it, but before I had that it would grind just as easily in an inexpensive ($20) coffee grinder dedicated to grinding flour. Even in the grinder the red lentils pulverize easily and leave a superfine flour. I do not know where or if commercially ground red lentil flour can be bought. Grinding it at home is so super easy that i just didn't worry about it. I am also very pleased to have a pasta that is better for my diabetic spouse to be able to eat! Because of the severe food restrictions imposed by my body, there is almost no prepackaged 'convenience' foods that I can have anymore. I also can't have commercially extracted starches (like tapioca, potato, etc.) due to corn cross-contamination issues so finding flours that worked for me was far from easy. I am THRILLED to be able make noodles ahead and dry them. I have done this before with the red lentil dough and it works great. I'm only 42 years old but I thought macaroni was something I'd never be able to eat again. Funny thing about red lentils when cooked is the color changes, so these look like and FEEL like regular wheat noodles when eating them! At least to the best of my knowledge; I grew up eating homemade macaroni and cheese so I'd think I know rather well. ;D It certainly takes a bit of work to clean up the machine, but honestly it isn't too bad. The only thing I wish I could change is to have two more die plates, one for small shell noodles, and another for mini lasagna noodles like the size found in Hamburger Helper. I would be utter thrilled to have those options! I can't stop imagining all the pasta dishes I can have again! :D --------------------------- Red Lentil Egg Pasta 250 g. Red Lentil Flour* 3 Large Eggs 1/4 tsp. Salt 1.) Mix & kneed dough until fully combined. 2.) Divide into 30 g. balls for 'walnut sized' portions. 3.) Use pasta machine as directed. 4.) Bring water to boil & cook fresh pasta for 7 minutes. Drain. Dried noodles: Boil 5 minutes & cover and let sit 7 minutes before draining. (This was the cooking directions listed for the (thicker) hand rolled dried pasta I made in the past. I'm including it here in case you needed a bit of a guide for cooking the dried pasta. The pasta from the KitchenAid attachment has much thinner walls so I'd assume the 7 minutes can be reduced but not entirely sure by how much right now. *Next batch I'm going to try 275 g. Red Lentil Flour to see if it makes a less sticky dough that doesn't seal the macaroni tubes when cutting off.

Turned out to be the 100% correct decision to purchase this instead of the Philips pasta maker: - The right machine: I have been making pasta for 7 years using the Mercato hand roller + rolling pin + old fashioned chitarra. But you cannot replicate high-end restaurant al dente extruded noodles. Yes, egg and 100% 'double zero" noodles and stuffed pasta can be made using the roller and the chitarra, but not water and 100% semola spaghetti. This is the next best thing unless you want to pay $3000 for a junior professional extrusion machine and make enough pasta for a month. - Adequate power: I have a Kitchenaid professional 600 that delivers 575 watts, vs the wimpy Philips with 200 watts. Even the Kitchenaid Artisan comes with 325 watts. How can you extrude great spaghetti without power? No need to worry about over working and burning the motor either. - the right dough: You have to have the correct dough texture. Every day is different in terms of ambient temperature and humidity. Here you can make sure it is right before you extrude it. You can feel it in your hands. With Philips, it is mixed within the machine. I don't see how you can control the dough using the latter. - the right flour: 100% durum wheat that is finely ground called semola rimacinata (not to be confused with semolina), Water at 150 degrees F and nothing else. Make it a little drier than you would if you were to roll it instead. If you want egg noodles, that is an entirely different thing, use the Mercato roller. - is it easy to clean? If your dough is right, absolutely. Marginally more work than the Mercato and chitarra -- you clean those too, right? Small bit of dough in the machine can be easily scraped and stored in fridge to be reused in the next batch, especially when it is just flour and water. Caution: rigatoni and elbows crack after drying at room temperature for more than a day. Best to eat them fresh after extrusion. For bucatini, can store in fridge wrapped for another day or two and no cracking. Otherwise comes out perfect. Just a little semolina (now you use this) to sprinkle on spaghetti. Don't hang fresh noodles on hanger -- it only distorts the shape and if your dough is right, no need to dry any further by hanging.

Making sure to read the directions first, my biggest dislike with this is the cleaning process. That being said there was several things I did like about this! Knowing that it is a sturdy product. It does take some time to get used to. Don't expect to be able to get this the first time you use it. It took me a couple tries before I really was able to form the pasta perfectly. What I found was using a dough that was slightly dry. Following the directions to a T. The other thing is making sure you have the interchangeable sections on correctly. If you don't get them tight enough they do rotate and cause the dough to back up in the fastener. The handle they provide and the picking mechanism we're perfect tools to go along with it! It made cleaning a whole lot easier. I really enjoy this product and the taste of the pasta itself is absolutely divine. I will be recommending this to everyone I know! I really enjoyed making and eating the pasta from it.

Like many other users of this product, my first batch of pasta was a disaster. My main complaint is a common one: the noodles stuck together upon trying to cut them, lost their shape, and were generally unmanageable. I ended up balling up the noodles and using the dough with my other pasta maker, which uses rollers instead of an extruder. Where I went wrong, and I suspect I'm not alone, is that I didn't like the way the Kitchen Aid formula mixes (looks clumpy and dry), so I kept adding water in order to obtain a homogeneous consistency. BAD IDEA! BUT, if you just change a few things from the instructions that come with this product, you'll be much more satisfied with your results. The first: add oil to the mix, about one teaspoon per two eggs. The second: mix the ingredients by hand until a homogeneous consistency is achieved. Start by using the handle of a wooden spoon as a mixing tool. At first the dough will look clumpy and dry, but be patient and persevere. When you can't make further process, use your bare hands. Knead the dough as necessary until all the flour is used up. Then make the dough into little pellets, no bigger than a walnut in size, preferably even smaller. After 20 minutes wait time, start the machine and extrude away. A bit of care and the use of a pasta rack will prevent the noodles from sticking together. I just finished making a batch of bucatini and they came out almost perfect and quite tasty. Incidentally, I use Caputo Semola di Grano Duro instead of general purpose flour. Don't know that it makes a huge difference, I'm just adding this fact in the interest of full disclosure. As far as the other common complaints, yes, the machine is not easy to clean. This is just a drawback of the process, and any extrusion machine will have the same issue. Also, since a certain amount of dough will remain in the machine regardless of what you do, there will be a certain amount of inevitable waste, another byproduct of the extruding process. The good news is that, since the amount of waste will be the same, bigger batch will result is less waste percentage wise. Another complaint is that it doesn't fit right and in some cases comes off, causing damage. I don't have much to offer on that one since mine simply didn't have that problem. So, overall, I'm satisfied with this product. It makes a good change of pace from the usual rolled pasta. Although the noodles will never look as good as the stuff you see on the KA YouTube clips, with a few tweaks to the instructions provided, it actually works as advertised.

We love fresh pasta and have made it by hand rolling or using the roller attachment and cutting normally. Thought we would try this for other types. It works really well and is nicely made. Some reviews trash it for being hard to clean, which I find a little unfair. It’s an extruded with the parts needed to make it…extrude. Yes there are some small spaces needing extra attention in cleaning but it just takes a little time. It’s not hard. I do think the buccatini is a little too wide ti be called that. But it’s quite good regardless. More like Pici sized. A little care and attention and it should last a long time. Love making enough at once to dry and keep for the weeks ahead. Use the 00 flour, I do think it makes a difference.

I've been making fresh pasta since the early 1980's (thank you, Marcella Hazan) with my ancient Atlas hand-crank machine. You name it, if it involves lasagna, fettuccine, or spaghetti, I've made it. But I always wanted an extruder for special pasta types, and now I have one. I was extremely happy with my first try, which was to make rigatoni. The recipe in the Manual is 4 eggs/3 1/2 cups of flour: that's a lot of pasta! And I was mindful of the excellent advice in several of the Amazon reviews. So I used Marcella's basic recipe: 2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of flour. I hand-kneaded the dough and dropped walnut-sized pieces into the extruder. Voila: perfect rigatoni (except for my clumsiness in slicing them off) emerged! There was very little waste of pasta dough: only about half a golf ball. Cleaning: it's not a breeze, but it works. By the time I went to clean everything after dinner, the dough was slightly dried and almost every bit was fairly easy to get out with the cleaning tool (aka "picker thing") that is provided. I managed to clean up everything else by moistening the part, then again using the picker thing. We are warned in the Manual to hand-wash the main Pasta Press and the pasta plates by hand only. Other parts may be washed on the top floor of the dishwasher. I'm okay with these restrictions; in fact, I expected cleaning the extruder to be harder than it was: it's beautifully designed for easy cleaning. Finally, my only disappointment is that my Manual promised me (page 4) that I could go to kitchenaid.com/quickstart "for additional instructions with videos, inspiring recipes, and tips on how to use your Pasta Press." I went to the site, entered the model number (KSMPEXTA), but, alas, could not find any hoped-for videos (I probably did something wrong). Still, I managed to make perfect rigatoni without a video, so I'm thrilled with my purchase.

Salen muy bien armados. Fácil de usar y limpiar

Eine wirklich tolle Maschine

Too much waste while using it and not easy to use. Too slow I regret buying it

Accessorio ottimo per chi ama il fatto in casa

Good quality and performance. Value is subjective. The product is great but is pricey. You ultimately get what you pay for. You will see these used in ‘The Great British Bake Off’. Product placement; but they wouldn’t use them if they were not reliable. Our purchase was GREY as we did not want the bright contrast of the RED one. Other colours are available. My wife is now buy the assessories - I.e. pasta rollers, cutters, makers. That will help with the next few birthdays and Christmas’s…

This is a very nice piece of kit. It is my first attachment for my KA mixer ( Artisan ) and I am wholly surprised by the ease at which I was able to produce excellent pasta - not commonly found in supermarkets ( dried / fresh ). I have included a couple of pics of the bucatini produced in order to see the the pasta was in fact hollow ( this really impressed me! ) and a delightful texture to eat. I note there are a few negative reviews but I would contest these - get the dough recipe right and the machine will extrude restaurant quality pasta - albeit in a smaller quantity and slightly longer extruding time. I don't think it would be fair to KitchenAid so leave a negative review simply because the dough is not compliant enough for the machine to work at it's best. Like with all cooking and baking - if the recipe is not right, what follows after will not be optimal. I used the recipe in the manual ( I sifted the four over the cup and considered one full cup of sifted flour to be the correct measurement - this is different to measuring one cup of flour and then sifting into the bowl ). The water content has been added: 2 - 4 tsp depending on flour used. I have used this on several discs and no problems with extruding and the machine did not struggle. Clean up afterwards was okay. The dishwasher safe parts ( which I washed by hand for immediate clean up and to stow ) are easily washed by hand. The disc requires a little more effort: my tip would be to remove as much pasta as you can from the disc and leave overnight - the dried pasta can be picked out in less than 10 minutes and the disc rinsed by hand. This is all that is required. I would most definitely recommend this KA attachment if you wish to make some pretty impressive pasta at home with relative ease. The end result was quite delightful and using the pasta press was really quite good fun!