Pasta Maker Machine

Okay, so if you are lucky enough to own a KitchenAid mixer why bother buying a pasta maker machine when you can simply buy KitchenAid Pasta Maker Attachments?

Now, obviously here at the Pasta Maker site we’re pretty enthusiastic about good, old-fashioned pasta maker machines.  The sort that roll out traditional fresh pasta dough easily and finely.  What we tend not to be so enthused about are those ‘promise everything, delivery very little’ automatic pasta makers.  The reason is that to get to grips with a pasta extruder really does take a while.  Yes, in theory they’re great, but for many (myself included) they are nothing but messy contraptions that are impossible to clean!

So, what am I doing talking about KitchenAid Pasta Attachments then?  Well, there are several different attachments produced by KitchenAid that will help you convert your stand mixer into a pasta machine.  And some are far better than others.

First of all there is a whole kit that mixes, extrudes and rolls your pasta.  Personally we would avoid these like the plague.  You’ve got a mixer, so use that to mix, but don’t get too bogged down with asking machinery to do everything.  The thing is unless you fork out for either a course in pasta making, or to buy pasta manufacturing equipment you are likely to be sadly dissapointed if you expect a small household appliance to cope with turning your possibly imperfectly prepared dough into something spectacular.

Oh yes in theory you can produce all sorts of exciting pasta sheets such as macaroni tubes.  But in practice it is terribly difficult to get to grips with.  Personally we think it is far better to learn to make fabulous textured, fabulous tasting fresh pasta even if the shape it is served in is not so ‘exciting’.  Think traditional and you’ll be making great fresh pasta!

Now, that’s one gadget dismissed but what about the picture at the top?  Those are pasta rollers, just like you find on any common Italian Pasta Maker but with the advantage that they fit snugly onto your KitchenAid stand mixer.  Really there is nothing that could go wrong with these simple bits of shiny kitchen equipment and that is why we just love them.  The three attachments included in the great KitchenAid Pasta set are of course, a pasta roller, plus a fettuccine cutter, and a linguine fini cutter.  That’s all you need to produce a wealth of great pasta shapes without all the fuss of extruding it in anything too convoluted.

If you still have a burning desire for a new electronic kitchen gadget, forget automatic pasta makers that do struggle to offer the best results.  Try instead a Zojirushi rice cooker as these really are fool-proof in producing fantastic results for the home cook.

Sometimes simple is best and that’s what you get if you buy the right KitchenAid Pasta Maker Attachments.