Customer Reviews

KitchenAid SNFGA Pasta Maker Attachment for Stand Mixers

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I didn't bother coming here first because Amazon won't ship this attachment to Australia.

Anyway, I finally got the thing the other day, after a lot of trials and tribulations, from a local store that was able to get it for me. And after all the effort and waiting to get it, what a huge letdown. I honestly expected more from KitchenAid.

I have not used the grinder to grind - I didn't need a food grinder. I only purchased it to make pasta, and the plates are made to be used with the food grinder only.

I have worked as a professional cook, have successfully made hundreds or maybe even thousands of kilos of from-scratch fresh pasta in my life, and have never come across such a reputable manufacturer offering such a poorly designed product as this. Shame on you, KitchenAid.

For years, I've used my little Italian hand-cranked pasta maker, and thought I'd try this one because it would allow me to make tubular macaroni. I also thought the extrusion process would be easier than cranking. Not true.

As others have said, getting the consistency just-so for extrusion is tricky. A couple of batches ended up in the rubbish.

The object is to continue to drop walnut-sized pieces of dough into the tube, while also catching the pasta as it comes out of the machine. Because it tends to get warm and stick together in one huge blob, people on the KitchenAid boards have suggested sprinkling the emerging pasta with flour. And for this, you need three hands. Those of us lucky enough to have been born with three arms may find it a breeze, but the rest of us will struggle. And this is not even to mention the additional mess (and wastage) of the sprinkled flour! By the time I was finished (or rather, surrendered), the place looked like an explosion in a flour mill!).

The first disk I started with was the noodle disk, and then went to the lasagne disk.

I can't see how the lasagne disk can be used for ravioli, as it has a "join" in tbe middle of the dough (which can be seen as a transparent streak. This is because the dough is actully extruded from this disk in two pieces which join when they are dropping from the disk). I can't see that pasta holding up to being filled and boiled.

The instruction booklet (it was the European version) was a letdown - only one recipe - "Basic Egg Noodle dough". The recipe in English was in the "home style" volume measurement of cups, whereas the European measurements were in weight (used by professional cooks, because it's more precise). I used the European ones, except that was difficult to translate the names of the ingredients (KA, please give us weight recipes along with the volume measurement ones, in English). I couldn't believe that the KA website doesn't have any recipes! Do they really want to sell these things?

The instructions could have been clearer. I expected to drop a walnut-sized piece of dough into the machine, and have at least something come out. But the first piece is for the 'screw'. It takes until the second piece and beyond, before you start seeing pasta. They could've mentioned that, as I thought I was doing something wrong.

I do not recommend spending money on this pasta maker (the food grinder might be good. I haven't tried it). The only thing this purportedly does that my hand-cranked one doesn't is tubular macaroni, and after seeing how it handled simple fettucine, I have my doubts about it (also, the instructions said that macaroni could not be dried and kept, but had to be used within 4 hours of making, which may not always be practical). I've decided that if I need macaroni, I'll buy it! The rest will be more than adequately handled by my dependable Atlas machine (for which I now intend to get the add-on motor).

Now, I think I'll go to ebay and list this attachment, since I have no need for the grinder part, and the pasta function is pretty dismal.

As a pasta enthusiast (but amateur cook...), I've used everything from a hand-crank pasta roller (only works with 2 people unless you buy the motor!) to this Kitchen Aid attachment. From this pasta attachment, the noodles immediately chunk together, and require extremely delicate effort to get apart. Don't even try ot use a non-egg noodle recipe or semolina flour recipe - the dough, while tastier - takes too long to stiffen up without the eggs, and clumps into globs, not noodles! I thought I'd save time and money by buying this pasta extruder - but it's frustrating and takes forver to get the delicate noodles apart. (We're not even going to mention time spent cleaning the attachment...)

The better solution? Well, apart from re-designing the attachment (Why are the extrusion holes in a CIRCULAR FORMATION?!?!?!), this is what I'm going to try: Kitchen Aid also makes a pasta roller attachment, much like the old-fashioned hand crank + motor combination. It seems like a much better idea. Buy it - try it - I know I'm going to. Hope this attachment works better then the first!

(By the way - I really do love my Kitchen Aid - even Einstein came up with bad ideas...)

I bought this product because of its dual function of grinding food and extruding pasta. The thought of having the ability to grind my own meat (always better tasting!)had great appeal to me as well as being able to make fresh pasta. I have used this item for both several times and I am completely satisfied with the grinders ability to grind meat. I have read reviews from some that this function of the grinder was not worth the money or the effort. I disagree. I have had NO PROBLEMS grinding meat. The key is not to overstuff the grinder itself. Cut the meat in strips (not cubes) and, one at a time, place them in the feeder chute and the grinder will feed itself. There is not even any need to "stuff" the meat down into the auger. In other words, follow directions and the grinder plastic housing will not break (no need to even put weight on it!), nothing will back up into the mixerr housing itself, and the meat will not become clogged in the feeder. A little patience will go a long way to adding life to this product.

The pasta plates are a little different story. While it is fun to make different kinds of non-flat noodles, and the dough extrudes just fine through the plates, it is difficult to keep the noodles from sticking together as they come out. I have to say, however, that I had the same problem with my manual pasta roller and cutters. Maybe making homemade pasta is quite an art? I'm starting to think so.

Want to grind meat?? Get this. Want to make pasta?? Beware.

I agree with the reviewer below who says that it is impossible to make the dough dry enough to not get all gummed up. It is easier to make pasta with an inexpensive hand-operated roller than it is with this attachment. I ended up buying the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment, which does a much better job.

This item sounds like it will work but BUYER BEWARE!As the noodles come out they run back together.I am a professional in the business and have tried everything, including letting the noodles fall into a bowl of flour to keep them separated but nothing seems to work. Definitely a BAD idea by Kitchen Aid.

I will admit, this pasta making process is not for the faint of heart... there are many things going on between consistency of the dough, the speed at which the dough is sucked into the extruder & the speed at which the machine spits out the finished noodles. If one thing is a little off, it will affect everything else. I've never made home made pasta before... but I do love my kitchenaid mixer... so I was looking to make something other than cookies & breads after the holidays.

For everyone who is having problems... there are a few things that might help....some of these come from me and some from previous reviews.

First, make sure you read the instructions. Completely. A few times. And then read them again. Many of the problems I ran into were addressed by the instructions! It is helpful to read them BEFORE YOU START.... & I had BARELY skimmed them...so shame on me!

Secondly, the consistency of the dough is very important. While I've started enjoying only whole wheat pastas, I decided to use the basic egg noodle recipe from a kitchenaid cookbook (this is a little different from the one in the instruction manual)just so I could play around with the machine before really expecting anything miraculous from whole wheat flour which is a bit of an art (to me, anyway). It was VERY dry... I added an ADDITIONAL tablespoon of water while mixing before I let it rest for the 15 minutes instructed... & I probably should have just trusted the mixture... it seemed to have softened/moistened while it sat, so the cookbook was right & I shouldn't have gotten ahead of myself.

Third, use your bowl clips. I found out what these were when I read the directions while my dough was resting (!!)... the dough is SO heavy that the bowl was bouncing out of the "locks" on the machine... & these little clips would have prevented that....& prevented me from freaking out that I had to hold the bowl against the mixer to keep it from flying across the kitchen. Again, it pays to read ALL the instructions before you start!

Fourth, it is important to make sure that you follow the rule of using a walnut size piece of dough... & not to cram more in to keep an even stream of noodles coming out. Once the dough is sucked into the extruder & you can see the white screw thing turning because the dough has moved forward toward the pasta plate, you can add more dough to the hopper. This is time consuming... & there is a lot of bobbing back & forth between watching the noodles slide out & watching if it is time to add more dough, but it really is for a reason! You do not want to overload the extruder... because it WILL jam... I almost had a jam, but thankfully my dough pieces were the right size & eventually worked their way down into the machine with the help of the little pusher thing included that helps you move it along manually. If the extruder becomes "empty" while you are pressing the pasta... it will simply "pause" until you stick another piece of dough. The machine continues, but the pasta just hangs there until more dough comes through. Nothing bad happens.... it doesn't matter if you only have a little coming through the holes... it will pick up where it left off.

Fifth, I was concerned about the overheating of the mixer that people also complained about.... the instruction booklet (there we go again) says that you must only make 2 recipes worth of pasta before allowing the machine to rest for an hour. During the hour after I made the one batch, I felt the mixer... & it was indeed warm... I'm sure much of it had to do with me taking longer than normal because of the learning curve, but it did cool off.... most importantly, I hadn't smelled anything burning or seen smoking... but kept an eye on it just the same because of the reviews. Also, I do have the 475 watt model from BJ's Wholesale.... so the extra wattage was probably helpful. If you have a lower wattage machine, maybe you can only stick to one batch of dough, or even divide that in half. Again, the more you use the machine, the more clear it will become to you what the idiosyncrasies of the mixer + attachment are.

Sixth, it really does help to have 2 people working the machine/cutting the pasta. As you cut the pasta from the machine, you must work quickly to separate it into strands... and if you don't do it immediately you will have a devil of a time trying to do it as it dries. The only way to do this alone is to turn off the mixer (thereby pausing the extruder) & separate your strands, spread them on a towel & then turn the mixer back on and return to the feeding of dough etc.

Lastly, the next time I will try this on my kitchen table vs the counter... I'm not a short girl, but between the height of the mixer & the attachment, I was up and down repeatedly & that got a little old, particularly with so much to "worry" about!

This truly isn't rocket science...but it isn't as effortless as one might think. It will definitely take a few tries to get it right... also, it will take a few tries to learn how to COOK fresh pasta vs the dried stuff that comes out of the box.

All in all, I really am glad I got this... I am excited to try this again particularly with all the different shapes!!

I am now looking to buy this again as I did have one before. In response to some of the bad reviews I do have some suggestions I have found work well in working out some of the difficulties. It helps alot if you dip the pasta plates first in italian dressing or even just warm water in order for the pasta not to stick as it extrudes. I did buy a one piece pasta machine that does it all for you but found it took far to long and many of the platic parts were far to cheaply made and began breaking off. This attatchment is very durable and can withstand years of very regular use. The love of my life being a very large Italian man loves pasta alot and it can get mighty pricey to buy fresh pastas in the store and dry noodles can never compare to the taste, variety, and vitamin content of fresh pasta. As far as storing them for later use I often spray my food dehydrator with cooking spray and dehydrate my own for later use. There are a variety of cookbooks on the market for pasta recipes and most do have recipes that work better than the ones that came with the product. On a last note- a tart press works wonderfully for making homemade ravioli and doesn't burst so easy from over filling like the traditional ravioli press does.

I purchased this attachment in hopes of making pasta shapes which weren't possible with my hand crank pasta maker, or simply to save time, but after many failed attempts and much cursing, I returned it. As several other reviewers have commented, the pasta clumps together as it is extruded, no matter how dry the dough. The motor seems to heat up the dough, so that it becomes impossibly sticky, and the noodles don't come straight out as one might hope. Definitely a bad investment.

I found the Kithchen Aid Pasta Maker to work fairly well. It is very mportant however to follow the pasta recipe that comes with the attachment. If the dough is too sticky or too dry it may not extrude as well. Overall, I am very pleased with the pasta maker's performance. Clean-up was a breeze, just a warm water rinse ans a little detail picking with the included cleaning tool.

I just made my first batch of pasta with the pasta maker, and I loved it. Fresh pasta is the only pasta I'll buy. This attachment lets me make it when I can't find it in the store.

In the beginning, I was a little apprehensive, but I just followed the recipe. The mixer did most of the work -- mixing and kneading -- so it was pretty easy. The hardest part was separating the pasta; the thick spagetti plate made pretty thin pasta. Next time, I'm going to try fettucine. The pasta was delicious and cooked really quickly.