Customer Reviews

Norpro Ravioli Maker and Press

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recently had gotten a Villaware Pasta set for my birthday. One of the main reasons was the ravioli press. What a disaster that was. then I thought hmm, I'll try this. what a delight. I made up about 130 ravioli yesterday. It works great. I would like to mention to make sure you liberally flour it before laying on the dough so they pop out quick. It took for a few roll outs to discover this. I highly recommend this product, it is a gem.

I bought this ravioli maker from[...] (for faster shipping). I also bought The Pasta Bible for recipes to use with the ravioli maker. I used it and, although making the dough and rolling it out can be difficult, the ravioli maker makes ravioli very easily. You just roll out the dough, place over the base (with the holes), use the other piece to make pockets, insert your fillings, brush with water/egg white, place the 2nd dough on top, and use a rolling pin on it to break up the pieces. They should then just easily push out.

But live and learn -- make sure you grease the ravioli maker every single time you do a new set! Our first set was almost impossible to get off the maker and they looked deformed, but our 2nd set looked perfect after we sprayed the maker with cooking spray.

Making ravioli, in my limited experience, is not easy. It takes care, attention to detail, and good tools.

Oh, and lots of time!

I am pretty far from perfecting my technique, and I still get frustrated with the process (sometimes to the point of literally screaming in the kitchen).

If you feel you're up for the challenge, though, you could do much worse that purchasing one of these to help make the process a little easier.

I've used other tools, and this is the best and quickest (where "quick" is a relative term).

Here are a handful of pointers so maybe you can learn a little from my mistakes:

- be careful not to roll your dough too thin or it won't have the stretching room it will need
- don't make it too dry either or it won't have the flexibility it needs when you're working it
- both of the above are totally subjective, so you'll have to experiment to get it right (and here lies one frustration factor)
- flour the side of the dough well where it touches the metal tray or the pressed ravioli will not release (more frustration)
- be thoughtful about rolling it to the proper width so that it will fit properly on the metal tray of the press while also not wasting loads of your lovely fresh dough

- air inside ravioli is bad. it will cause them to burst while boiling.

So...
- fill the indentations with enough filling so that the top surface (pasta and filling) across the metal tray is as level as possible before you brush with egg wash and lay on the top dough layer. This will help minimize the amount of air you will get inside the sealed ravioli
- lay the top layer of dough down gently working from one end or edge to the other and pressing down as you go so that you eliminate as much air as possible from between the layers
- after you've rolled over the tray to separate the individual ravioli, you may want/need to do a final quick check on some or all of the ravioli to press out any remaining air. I use a toothpick to prick a little hole near one corner, and then work from the opposite corner to press out air and firm up the seal on each little packet.

finally! you might think you've worked hard enough by now, but while you're going through tray after tray, trying to work quickly before your dough dries out, you might get busted at the end unless you do the following...
- be careful about the moisture level in your filling! if it is too wet, the dough on your completed ravioli will get soggy while you are working on the rest, and this may result in things sticking together when you least want them to right as you are finally about to toss them into the gently boiling water (never a rolling boil, because that will either burst the ravioli, or cook them on the otside before they're finished on the inside).
- add breadcrumbs to filling to adjust moisture level (more experimentation)
- flour the outside of each finished ravioli thoroughly. if you get too much flour in your cooking water, you can always change it out for fresh water, but you can't fix two or more ravioli that have formed a tragic sticky glob of glued together raw ingredients.

That's about it. The product itself is great. The process gets easier with lots of practice.

I'm thinking there's a reason why ravioli recipes (and techniques) are the sort of thing that get passed down from generation to generation, because it ain't easy coming up with the whole thing from scratch (or from a book).

Works quite well and you get a very professional looking product. One tip; spray the mold with Pam before laying on first piece of pasta. Makes for easier separation from the mold. It forms pretty deep pockets so alhough they aren't really big ravs there's room for a good amount of filling.

This is a must own kitchen gadget for any pasta lover.. I grew up on home made raviiolis but making the dough was always a hassle and a mess. Go to your supermarket produce section, get a pack of egg roll dough. It makes 4 dozen quick easy raviolis. Spray cooking spray on maker, put (2) dough wraps on, push down press, fill with filling, egg wash seams, put top on, roll and they will just fall out. I give this product a big thumbs up.....

I decided to make my first batch of ravioli after work, on a weeknight. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I read the directions for the press, whipped up a batch of filling (ground chicken, peppers, and mozzarella cheese) and started rolling out the dough. I used my Imperia 150 pasta machine, rolled the dough down to the second to last setting, and laid half a sheet over the metal part of the press. Then I inserted the plastic thing to make the indentations for the filling, filled the holes, and covered the metal thing again with the other half of the pasta sheet. I made one pound of pasta dough, and with that one pound I was able to make 48 ravioli. From start to finish (with pre-made sauce) it took about an hour and a half.

Let me tell you, it makes a HUGE difference if you spray the metal tray with nonstick cooking spray before you put the first sheet of dough on it. I forgot this little tip and my first batch of 12 was very hard to get out. After that, I remembered what the reviews recommended and sprayed it with Pam. The remaining three batches just popped right out. Every single ravioli sealed perfectly and not a single one popped open in the cooking pot. I cooked them 12 at a time for about 14 minutes and they were perfect.

This thing is amazing. It's simple enough to get perfect results the first time you use it, and easy enough to make fresh ravioli on a weeknight. Don't waste your money on the attachments for the pasta machines, this thing is so easy a kid could do it!

I received a KitchenAid Pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas this year. Since I wanted to make ravioli with it, I was thrilled. In a ravioli-making furvor, I attempted my first batch...

While they tasted good, they looked like a confused third-grader made them...I had filling everywhere, some of them didn't seal and they were just odd looking. I researched online to find something that would make nice looking, well-sealed ravioli and took my chance on the Norpro.

It is awesome. It is easy to use, it is the width of the pasta sheets from my attachment, it seals well and pops out of the form fairly easily. I made several dozen in a pretty short time. The only thing that makes me give it 4 stars is that I wish the little teeth that cut through the dough were a little sharper, the outside edges do fine, but some of the inside ones don't quite cut through. I used a pizza cutter to score it a little before I took them out of the mold.

Overall, it was exactly what I wanted.

The title says it all, the device works fine but one trip through the dishwasher and it will oxidize like you won't believe. After the first use, and one dishwashing, I scrubbed for half an hour to get the device to a state that did not transfer too much aluminum oxide off on my hands or the ravioli I was making. The product was $12, so I guess I should have figured the finish was not dishwasher safe but a warning would have been nice. At $12 it is not worth sending back, I'll just buy another and be more careful. If you do buy one of these sort of devices, a wooden rolling pin and some cooking spray are mandatory. Hand wash when you are done!!!

I recently used an Imperia ravioli attachment to make homemade ravioli. What a catastrophe. I had bought the Norpro ravioli maker and this episode made the Norpro seem that much better. I already loved it, but you now how it is with a motorized tool... grass is always greener. Love this one. The ravioli are good sized and it seals well. Easy to use.

You know, I am ashamed to admit it, but I actually snickered when I first saw this product. What a silly, silly girl I am. I have one now and it is an absolute delight to work with and makes perfect ravioli. Is quick, easy to clean and works oh so much better than the expensive machine I have.

I was so grateful for the other reviewers here who recommended a quick spray of PAM or liberal flowering to prevent sticking. I followed their advice and had no problems what so ever.

The size of the ravioli is perfect and you get nice uniform pieces which certainly help in the cooking process.

It is amazing that something so simple can work so well and bring so much joy to the kitchen. It must be noted that this is so simple to use that you can turn out quite a number of these tasty morsels in a flash once you get set up.

I will no longer snicker at new kitchen products...I promise.