Fresh pasta is delicious, but making it used to feel like a chore. I've taken a class where I made my own spinach and ricotta ravioli, and it was undeniably delicious, but a bit too much effort when you can buy something reasonable from the supermarket instead. I love cooking, but carefully rolling out the dough to just the right thickness isn't a whole lot of fun.
That was until I tried the new KitchenAid 3-in-1 Metal Pasta Attachment, which makes preparing sheets of pasta, tagliatelle, and spaghetti effortless. I'm even having fun making my own flavored pasta with ingredients like spinach and sundried tomatoes mixed in. Authentically Italian? Almost certainly not. Tasty? Absolutely.
Your KitchenAid mixer can beat, knead, and whisk ingredients effortlessly, but if that's all you're using it for, you're missing out. Remove the silver cap from the mixer's 'nose' and you'll find a square peg, to which you can screw a whole host of attachments that will be powered by the mixer's mighty motor. Spiralizers, meat grinders, ice cream makers, mini-food processors — the choice is enormous.
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The company already sold a pasta roller, but previously if you wanted to make long noodles you'd need to switch from the roller to a separate cutter. With the new three-in-one roller, there's just one unit with a roller and two cutters all included, so there's no swapping necessary. Just screw it onto your mixer and you're literally ready to roll.
Unlike a traditional pasta roller, there's no need to crank it by hand, and you don't need to clamp anything onto your kitchen counter.
Take a look at the side of the pasta roller, and you'll see a numbered dial. Turning this will adjust the distance between the main rollers, and therefore the thickness of your pasta. When you're rolling your dough, start out with the widest setting (1) and increase the number with each pass until it's thin enough for your liking. The three-in-one attachment comes with a guide that tells you which setting to use to create different types of pasta.
My usual pasta recipe is from BBC Good Food, and has just two key ingredients: eggs and pasta flour (which has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour). The recipe suggests using semolina to dust as well, but in my experience that's not necessary; a very light sprinkle of pasta flour works fine so long as you don't end up working lots of it into the dough.
The easiest way to mix everything together is to use a food processor, though you can also do it by hand. Once it's smooth, flatten it out, dust it lightly with flour, and switch your mixer onto its lowest setting. Put a plate or board underneath the roller, feed your prepared dough in from the top, and watch as a perfectly smooth sheet emerges and drops out of the bottom. It's extremely satisfying, and as easy as using a Play-Doh Fun Factory — but for adults.
Dust the sheet of pasta lightly with flour after each roll to prevent it sticking. Once it's reached your desired thickness, feed the sheet into one of the cutters, wait a few seconds, and you'll have a heap of perfect pasta ready to cook or dry.
The KitchenAid three-in-one pasta roller is easy to clean as well. Just let it air-dry for an hour, then remove any debris using the stiff-bristled cleaning brush provided. If anything is stuck, give the attachment a gentle tap (I recommend placing a tea towel on your kitchen counter first).
Once you've tried plain pasta (which tastes amazing), you're ready to start having fun. I happened to have a bunch of fresh basil that needed a home, so I chopped it up and made a batch of green-flecked spaghetti. Want more ideas? How about dried tomato, bright purple beetroot, leafy greens like kale or spinach, spicy chilli, or fragrant rosemary? Personally I don't happen to keep squid-ink in the cupboard, but if you do, purple pasta is just a splash away. Carb-loading has never been so much fun.
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