Wednesday, January 20, 2010

KitchenAid Pasta Press: Round 1



I was recently gifted the Pasta Press attachment for KitchenAid's Stand Mixer. The Pasta Press comes packaged with six pasta plates (spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, large macaroni -I find it to be fairly similar to the rigatoni, and small macaroni), a cleaning brush, a pasta pusher, and an instruction manual complete with several recipes. KitchenAid's new tool allows users to push their freshly made pasta dough through the Pasta Press' tube to the chosen pasta plate and cut the resulting pasta shape to their desired length. It also eliminates the need to dry the pasta before cooking; once the shapes are cut they can immediately be thrown into a pot of boiling water.

As revolutionary as the Pasta Press appears to be, and as excited as I was to begin gorging myself on limitless fresh pasta, the unfortunate reality is that my first attempt with the Pasta Press was not as successful as I had hoped. Round one produced a bastardized version of the fusilli I know and love, followed by a mess of rigatoni- each stuck together rather than hollow. I found the clean-up to be somewhat painful but knew what was in store after reading step 5 under the "Care and Cleaning" section in the instruction manual (yes, I am the type of person that reads a new instruction manual cover-to-cover)- "Allow remaining dough on pasta plates to dry overnight before separating. Remove completely dried dough with the cleaning brush. Use a wooden skewer or toothpick to pick out any remaining dough. Do not use metal objects or put pasta plates in the dishwasher to clean." I let a defeatist attitude momentarily get me down (I fought visions of the Pasta Press collecting dust alongside a had-to-have bread machine and yogurt maker), but ultimately resigned to take the hardships and sticky dough for what they are- minor set-backs in round one of the ongoing battle for fresh, homemade pasta. My hope is that round two ends as I envision it- with delicate and delicious pasta!

I decided to make carrot pasta dough utilizing carrots from the Union Square Farmer's Market

The fusilli didn't curl as I had anticipated

After a failed attempt at fusilli, I switched to rigatoni- once cooked they lost their hollow shape (for those that actually came out hollow to begin with)

The final dish- edible- but not as tasty as it has the potential to be

Pointless "cleaning brush" included with the Pasta Press

Dried carrot pasta dough stuck in the fusilli plate- back view

Dried carrot pasta dough stuck in the rigatoni plate- front view
Posted by on Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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14 comments:

  1. Your Loving MomJan 21, 2010 03:30 PM
    You wanted it. As Tim Gunn says, "Make It Work".
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  2. when finished putting pasta through, run some plastic wrap through the attachment. this will clean out any unwanted food bits; this works well for any kitchenaid grinder attachment.
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  3. small kitchen big viewFeb 28, 2010 10:44 AM
    Okay, I agree with most of what you said. I have this attachment and whilst I thought it was ridiculously priced i recieved it as a gift. first couple of go rounds (not so much) stick with it and you will learn to love it. I make fresh pasta about 2 or 3 times a week. I find with the tubular pastas a bit of drying time helps immensly(sp).
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  4. Found this entry while googling for trouble shooting tips with my own pasta press attachment! I had to twirl the fusilli into shape immediately after it was cut. Stayed in shape even after boiling. I also used the carrot pasta recipe by M.S., too...found that anything but the pasta dough recipes in the manual are too soft and can't hold the tubular shapes. Now, I'm having problems with the macaroni shapes not curling into a "U" as they should!
    But all in all, I love the attachment. Keep at it!
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  5. I can't understand why anyone would pay the price that Kitchen aid is asking for a plastic peice of s__t
    Mr. Vinchenzo Scarduchii
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  6. I am shopping for a pasta press for my husband, if this one is no good, does anyone have any suggestions for a better one??
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  7. try cleaning it with a water pick if you have one. works great
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  8. I too was disappointed but then decided to try my own recipes and success:
    4 large eggs lightly beaten room temp
    2 T warm water
    1 T olive oil
    2 C bread flour
    1 C semolina pasta flour
    1 tsp salt.
    Place ingredients in bread machine program for 13 minutes of kneading and if after 7 minutes it is too dry add a few drops of water, or too wet sprinkle in some flour. Let it rest for 30 minutes wrapped in plastic wrap. continue with instructions for KitchenAid pasta press.
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  9. I've had the Cuisenart Pasta Machine for years and it's wonderful but does have the same type plates which present the same cleaining issues however I have never found this to be a problem because I love the machine so much. You have to make absolutely sure your measurements are correct and the recipes with the Cuisenart usually include weight measurements which are the best way to go. If you don't have the right consistency then of course it's going to be a problem coming through the plates.
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  10. Perhaps you should read the instructions the brush is used to remove the residue after it dries on.
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  11. Got it for Christmas and love it! It is true that your measurements have to be exact and I have always been a stickler on that. All my pasta came out as expected..Perfect! Cleaning is not easy but not bad when you plate and eat this yummy and pretty pasta. Spinach is my favorite and I am looking for others.
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  12. I too had trouble with making Rigatoni. I used the recipe in the booklet, measuring precisely. I added a couple T of water to reach the 7/8 c of liquid. I had no trouble with the press. Once cooked, they blew up and were very thick and doughy, like gnocchi. I was hoping to have results like the light homemade pasta served in restaurants. Is it the plates or the dough? I'm going to try again tomorrow.
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  13. I came across this due to my abject failure in making fusilli as well. It didn't come out nice and twisty like I thought it should and, frankly, if I have to sit there and twist every single piece of pasta that falls, it'll take half the day!

    No more fusilli for me, I suppose; at least, not home made.

    The rigatoni I made came out okay - flat, but okay. It does blow up when you cook it and we ended up freezing half of the cooked pasta for another day (for a family of three pasta eating fools)

    Haven't tried the others yet, probably out of fear of failure.
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  14. I am using my pasta press for the first time. The rigatoni started out fine, but as I continued, it came out split open. Any ideas???
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