KitchenAid Pasta Press Attachment

I haven't used it as yet but looks like it will last for years. I love Kitchen Aid products, as my old ones fail I replace them with Kitchen
Aid

I bought the KA pasta extruder a month ago without knowing much about it and without having done any research. I had not seen it on offer at the TSC previously and had 2 months to return it so I thought I would take a chance on it. I had bought the Pasta Roller/Fettucine Maker pasta attachment with my original purchase and while I really liked that, I wanted to be able to make other kinds of pasta and not just fettucine.

I am so excited with this purchase. I have now made pasta twice and quite successfully. I am still learning having been completely self-taught from the internet - isn't the internet wonderful! I don't use eggs and so have only made eggless pasta only. The first time my pasta dough was a little too moist for the extruder. By normal standards it was not moist at all but the extruder needs a really dry dough. So, the bucatini and macaroni that I made the first time were good didn't hold their shapes that well. Yesterday however, I made rigatoni and used a firmer dough: dough that barely came together and this time the rigatoni turned out perfect! I am loving this machine. People have complained about it being difficult to clean but yesterday, as a result of my very stiff dough, the extruder plates came apart in three pieces which I hadn't realised that they could and as a result, clean-up was a breeze.

I think if you make egg-based fresh pasta you will need to ensure that the dough is fairly dry - you may have a trial and error period. I have read that the recipes for egg pasta that come with the machine are not that good for the extruder.

I have not been able to dismantle the wire-cutter from the unit - it came all assembled. According to the instructions I should be able to but I can't seem to figure out how. As it is easy to clean even when assembled, this I can live with.

Another point to note is that when the unit arrives, the plates are stored in a plastic case fitted to the unit. It was by accident I was able to get them apart. It was very tough to separate them. You have to press the middle of the transparent case to release the case. There are no instructions for this.

Anyway, apart from the above my experience so far has been great.

I bought the KA Professional series in the summer this year and I am really thrilled with the machine overall. I bought the mincer attachment, shredder and juicer attachments as well and I am very pleased with all of them. I also bought the smaller bowl that fits into this unit with the special all-around whisk/beater and am loving that too.

All in all, a great purchase.

FYI, most extruded pasta is made with semolina flour, water and salt only. My recipe is 2 cups of semolina flour, between 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of water and salt. I add one tbs of olive oil. Be careful with the water as pasta dough needs to be silky and dry and for the extruder even drier.