Okay so I have always made my pasta completely different from this.. I made my dough first then stretched the dough, kneading, which needed a lot of room and extra hands to do it properly THEN cut and shaped my own pasta.. you can click this link to see how I done that https://cookingwithserena.com/?p=38937
so then my neighbor gave me a pasta machine and I thought I would try it out, I wanted to try out the tube pasta dies such as the rigatoni and a few others just to see how it would come out.. It did pretty good.. I didn’t like the part when I had to cut my pasta from the machine.. it didn’t cut right.. and I also didn’t like that it only makes small amounts at a time in the machine unlike when making your own pasta dough, which makes a TON.. you make it once that way and it lasts a good while.. but I will tell you what I did like about this machine.. it is SUPER EASY and FAST with minimal mess and has a LOT of pasta noodle options that you can make when in a hurry for quick delicious homemade pasta.. so there are plus and minuses.. but definitely worth keeping around! =) hope this helps you out..
HOW TO MAKE FRESH PASTA WITH AUTOMATIC PASTA MACHINE
Select whichever Pasta Shaping die you want to use… spaghetti, Rigatoni, fettucini, ect.. then Place the die in hot water for one minute.
Put the heated die on the front of the machine and secure it with the locking ring.
Machine off, lid , making sure setting is on the mix/knead setting, open top and add 1 cup all purpose flour Pour into mixing bin.
In a measuring cup pour 2 tbsp. of olive oil then, add 1 large egg use a fork to blend olive oil & egg together.
Close lid and turn power onto machine.. (If not using an egg, then it’s 2 tbsp. of olive oil then add water or vegetable juice)
switch on the pasta machine should still be on MIX
let it go for a minute then very very slowly add a little water for plain pasta,
add the water by pouring slowly back and forth through the liquid crease on the lid of your clear bin.
or use strained vegetable juice of your choice (tomato, carrot, beet, or spinach) instead for delicious colored and flavored pasta.
Mix flour and liquid for a couple of minutes. turn off machine completely, and then turn knob on front to EXT (extrude).(this allows pasta to start coming out) Now turn the machine back on and watch your pasta come out the front.
Cut it off at desired lengths with the backside of a table knife or kitchen sheers
If you follow the directions it will work as advertised.
Tips.. Don’t!!! open up Slider during mixing process.
You will have the extruder chamber filled with highly compacted dry pasta mix that will cause loud grinding noise and abnormal bulging vibrations from mixing and extruding chambers. You will won’t be able to remove mixture chamber until you remove the extruder rod which has become very tightly compacted. Even the extruder screw on knob tightens up severely. If this happens remove pasta mixture from mixing chamber
I used kitchen scissors to cut the pastas
Do not open slider to Extrusion position til you have good pea size pasta mixture. Most likely you will have to add a little flour to keep it from gumming up the paddles and spiral extruder rod. Even during extrusion process when pasta is coming out disc. You might have to shut off machine and open mixing chamber to pull apart mixture if you allowed it to get too sticky/gummy and sprinkling flour on it doesn’t help break it down to pea size mixture.
use a wooden rack tree for drying, and a cookie sheet .. if you want you can use a tiny bit of flour sprinkled on it to help separate the pieces as they are emerging from machine
the pasta can be dried and bagged, even frozen… or you can use it immediately by quickly cooking, or you can save it till next day to cook by storing in baggie..
Cook fresh pasta in 4-6 quarts of boiling salted water.
Drain ad serve with sauce.
Enjoy
Angel hair cooks in 30 seconds. Spaghetti in 1 minute, and mcaroni in a minute and a half to 2 minutes.
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