Philips Pasta Maker
My pasta maker arrived today and I made soba noodles. I like wheat noodles so that's why I chose to make that :P
First, the machine came already assembled. It included a recipe book, the user manual, and different shaped pasta discs like spaghetti and fettucine. It also includes a cup for measuring flour, and a cup for measuring water as well as a dough scraper. However, when making pasta you want to weigh out ingredients on a food scale so I didn't use the cups that came with the machine.
This past weekend, I had bought buckwheat flour knowing that I needed some to make soba noodles. I measured out 170 grams buckwheat flour, 80 grams all purpose flour, and 90 mls of water. Then I dumped the dry ingredients into the machine and selected the single batch option. When it started kneading, I slowly added the water and five minutes later, the machine started extruding pasta. I used the dough scraper to cut the noodles as long as I wanted them and voila! I bagged the noodles and put them in the freezer.
I wish I could say cleaning was super easy and quick, but it wasn't. It took about ten minutes to take apart and clean everything. The mixing chamber, the lid and everything else wasn't difficult. The pasta disc was another story. Wheat flour is much stickier than other flours so I had to use the metal ends of the dough scraper to get the dough out of the holes and everywhere else in the disc. I think I'll get faster as time goes on though. Also, all but one part is top rack, dishwasher safe.
Is it easy to use? yes.
Does it do what it's supposed to? absolutely. The only thing it does not do is work well with rice or non-grain based pasta. You can use it if you're gluten free and have GF flour around, but not rice noodles, yam noodles, etc.
Is it worth the money? heck yeah! (though this is a gift from my boyfriend for Christmas...)
Additionally, I made a video which shows the kneading and extruding process. It's only four minutes long :)
Click to view