There is something about pasta that’s comfort food to me, especially in a cream sauce with mushrooms and asparagus. Pasta is a family favourite at my house, and because it’s my go to for entertaining and so easy to make on a busy night, I make it often. Fresh pasta is better than store bought pasta any day, so when given the opportunity to test the Phillips Pasta Maker, I was all in.
Appearance
When you first take it out of the box, you notice how the Phillips Pasta Maker is very streamlined and modern looking. It has a narrow, tall, and rectangular shape, and it’s very easy to put together. The shape of the pasta maker makes it easy to be tucked away into a corner if you will be a regular user, or fit into almost any cupboard if you just want to pull it out once a week.
The mixing compartment slides easily into place and the actual mixing tool fits into a square hole in the compartment. All of the pieces of the pasta maker are locked into place with a silver, slightly heavy, metal cover that has 2 keys to tighten and seal the machine.
It just takes one time to learn about the pieces and put it together, then it’s really quick and easy to use. The instruction booklet for set up is simple to read and follow and the recipe booklet has some different pasta variations and amazing dishes to try.
Features
The Phillips Pasta Maker is very user friendly. It comes with everything you will need to make all kinds of pasta. There are special pasta shape makers for penne, spaghetti, lasagna and linguini, a separate measuring cup for the water and flour, and a scraper to cut the pasta off at the correct length as it is extruding from the machine.
Once you turn the machine on you have 2 simple options to choose from – 1 cup of flour or two. One cup will serve up to 4 people and 2 cups will serve 8.
Testing it out
Let’s just say my first attempt at homemade spaghetti didn’t turn out as planned, but it was
completely my fault. We are very health conscious in my house so I use a light spelt flour in my daily cooking and baking. Light spelt really doesn’t work well in the Phillips Pasta Maker as the grain of the flour is so fine, it leads to a sticky dough that will not extract from the machine the way it is supposed to. In fact, during my first attempt the pasta didn’t come out at all, instead just spinning in the drum.
After doing a little research, I found I wasn’t the only one who experienced this, so off to the store to buy some organic all-purpose flour I went. When I had the all-purpose flour in hand, I attempted homemade pasta again, and this time it was an almost instant success.
It’s a kick to see fresh spaghetti noodles forming after just a few minutes in the machine, and as soon as I made a simple pasta recipe, I wanted to try all of the others in the recipe book.
To get your fresh pasta all you need to do is power on the machine, add your flour only to the mixing chamber and start the mixing on your desired setting. Once the flour is mixing, slowly pour in the wet ingredients through the slits in the top of the mixing chamber lid. You will see the dough forming. Just a tip at this stage: if you see the dough forming and it looks dry, put in another tablespoon or so of water and see if that helps. You have to do it fairly quickly or it won’t incorporate into the dough. It made all the difference with my spaghetti.
After mixing for approximately 7 minutes, the mixer tool will start to push the dough out of the machine. Use the scraper tool to slice off your noodles at the desired length, lay them out on a cookie sheet until you are ready to cook, and viola, you have fresh pasta for dinner.
A quick word about fresh pasta: you may have had it in restaurants, but until you make it at home you have no idea how different fresh pasta tastes than packaged. I always buy organic pasta in packages, and I thought that was good in comparison to other pastas I’ve tried, but fresh pasta puts them all to shame. When it cooks, the noodles plump up in a way that dried pasta can’t, and it just tastes fresh and delicious.
Clean up
As I sat watching this little machine mix up fresh pasta, I had a slight cringe thinking about trying to wash out the dough that would be left behind, so I was pretty happy to see how easily all the pieces washed up.
After taking the machine apart, I just used hot water and a little dish soap on a cloth and all the remaining dough was gone. The metal mixing piece is very easy to clean and although the pieces are dishwasher safe, I avoided the dishwasher because it was so easy to rinse and clean the pieces.
What I loved about this machine
By far the best thing about the Phillips Pasta Maker is the ability to have fresh pasta to boil in as little as 15 minutes. Having tested this machine I don’t think I would ever buy store bought pasta again. The fresh taste of the pasta was also a huge hit in my house, and I don’t think my kids would accept anything else now. It also takes away any need to buy store bought pasta since you can make large quantities to freeze for later use.
The machine itself is so easy to use and easy to clean, and the only issue I had was that the recipe booklet portion that gives you the flour, water and egg measurements can be a little unclear. The water and egg are on the same line, so you question whether it is 1 egg plus the amount of water or is it the egg and water together to the correct measure. If you’re trying it yourself, crack the egg in the cup then fill the cup up with water until both the egg and water hit the fill line.
I love to cook for family and friends and having the Phillips Pasta Maker at home is one great way to take my home cooked meals to the next level.
If you are a pasta lover like myself you will definitely want to invest in the Phillips Pasta Maker, and it’s available right now on Bestbuy.ca.
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