Kichenaid pasta extruder attachment - any opinion?

This attachment is for the Kitchenaid stand mixer, the discs allow you to make spaghetti, bucatini, rigatoni, fusilli, large macaroni or small macaroni. Anybody has used it? What do you think of it?

https://www.kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/stand-mixers/attachments/p.gourmet-pasta-press.ksmpexta.html

This looks like the one my BIL has, and the price sounds about the same too. He loves it and shows it off to everyone who comes over to dinner. I had one of the smaller ones they used to sell, never worked very well so I gave it away. This one I might like…if someone gave it to me, anyway :wink:

In fact, one negative point is the price of these kitchenmaid attachments are not justified.

As for the positive side, Kichenaid claims that these fresh pasta, the dough doesn’t need to rest or dry out, so it saves time.

My brother in laws favorite thing to make with this is zucchini pasta actually. Me, I have a “Miracle” Mercado Atlas pasta machine that my mother in law gave me for my wedding shower back in the mid 1970s…I might have bought something like this one if I had nothing else similar, maybe in my next life ? But I kind of like when all the pasta is hanging all over the house drying out anyway!

How about the pasta with holes like bucatini, small macaroni, do you remember if they still keep the holes? I read some comments from Amazon saying the holes were gone.

That does sound intriguing, to make pasta with holes. The little Kitchenaid pasta maker I had made stuff like that but it always came out like mush in the end. Wish I could tell you more! It might have just been me…

I think that one element of the discussion should be, What kind of pasta are you trying to duplicate? Most people make egg pasta, which is usually cut into flat shapes. The shapes with holes, bucatini, maccheroni, etc, are usually factory-made non-egg pasta. Most of us cannot duplicate this kind of pasta at home.

1 Like

Why not?

I was gifted with a Marcato pasta machine, but not yet use it, still in the recipes research stage.

I mostly just made spaghetti and lasagna with the Marcato…my most popular dish at the time was my manicotti though. That was made as my MIL did, not pasta but crepes made with one of those upside down crepe pans. A nice change anyway!

1 Like

All my knowledge of pasta comes from Marcella Hazan. She writes in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, “The boxed, dry pasta one refers to as factory-made includes such shapes as spaghetti, penne, and fusilli. These cannot be made as successfully at home as they are in commercial pasta plants with industrial equipment.”

1 Like

Some of the comments of the Kitchenaid tool, people said the penne type of pasta, they were a bit too thick, when compared to industrial ones.

It seems the drier dough without egg, the attachment would need very long time to do it, and heat up too much the Kitchenaid.

Industrial penne are eggless. It’s a different dough, and it requires different drying. Flat, homemade pastas, either by the rolling pin method or with the Marcato, are a different animal.

1 Like

Hmmm, now you pointed that out, I don’t think I have ever seen fresh penne on sale.

I actually had the KitchenAid pasta maker once. I cannot remember if I ever used it. I used the meat grinder until I couldn’t stomach it any more, then I bought a professional meat grinder. Then I gave the whole business away to a friend. But I also have a hand roller like the Marcato. It may even be a Marcato. It gives good results with egg pasta dough.

I have the KA meat grinder too, but since I’m using it to do minced meat in occasional manner, it’s good enough.

I agree that it’s good enough. But sometimes megalomaniacs want something better.

1 Like

Isn’t the attachment something like $200? Unless you’re using it very often, I don’t think it’s worth it compared to splurging for the highest quality or store bought pasta—- a friend used it and I found the penne (or maybe it was rigatoni) texture way too thick, and not as pleasant as a quality brand formed with a brass die.

I found it on promotion at German Amazon for 120€, about $137. That’s why it got me thinking.

Thanks everybody for the feedback, I will save my money for something else. :laughing:

1 Like