I needed a bit of a break after my first test of the Philips Pasta Maker. When I was ready to return to product testing I decided to use the penne pasta cutting attachment.
This time I decided to make the egg pasta and also only use their measuring tools. Once again I made 1-2 servings of pasta but this time with one cups of flour and 1 egg with enough water to make 95 mL.
I put in the flour, put on the top and turned on the machine selecting 1-2 servings.
I whisked the egg and water together and carefully, slowly streamed it into the machine, making sure all of it went in.
It still looked dry but this time I left it and started working on getting the rest of the meal prepped. I had to eat something with it but this time, no other distractions!
The next thing I knew I turned to look and OMG, my machine turned into Cthulu!!! I actually screamed, I am embarrassed to admit. I quickly got the cutting tool and cut off the noodles. I also cut them in half, they were way too long.
When the the machine came to a stop, this is what I had and there was very little dough left in the machine. Impressive!
Much closer to a success but as you can see, it’s pretty dry. Still, edible this time!
I have never cooked fresh penne pasta before so I was a little unsure of the cooking time. Usually when fresh noodles rise to the top they are done but perhaps because they were dry, they needed additional cooking time.
Wow, I could not believe it, fresh penne pasta!!! And for only pennies! (Not including the cost of the machine but you know what I mean.)
I fried up some spicy chicken sausage and added goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and drizzled with a balsamic glaze.
Wow, totally has that “artisanal” look, doesn’t it? It was very chewy but once again, that could have been because of the cooking time. I do think the dough was too dry but still, not perfect fresh pasta goes a long, long way.
I am so relieved to have a successful test with this machine! Its potential is endless and I now have the confidence to try something even more daring next time. Dumpling dough perhaps? Tomato pasta? Soba noodles? The possibilities go on and on. Super exciting! More to come…
Gongrats Suziec, way to stick with it . They could have been ‘penne buccatini’ if you hadn’t cut them . :Persistence rules and you rock !!!!
Thanks Wayne! Oh I didn’t realize there was such a thing as penne buccatini! LOL.
Did you ever figure out why the pasta is pretty firm? I have the same machine and mine is fairly firm. I don’t know if it’s because of the flower I’m using. I cooked shell pasta for 15 minutes and it’s still too firm.
Maybe if you use flour and not flower it would work. Just kidding and thought it was funny.
Keep on playing. It’s the best way to learn.
So true!!!! So happy I didn’t give up.
Yes, keep on experimenting and you find the perfect combos for you!
Yup, going to keep having some pasta fun, now that it is actually fun!
How was clean up of the machine? If it was hard and fussy it could put me off using it!!
I put the disc in the freezer this time which helped a lot and used the pokey tool they provided. It is a bit fussy that way but I thought it was going to be much worse.
They look awesome but a little dry. I wonder if the eggs they are using are bigger? maybe if you add a couple of tablespoons of water? I know with fresh pasta what it takes depends on the humidity in the air and the type of flour how much water you need so maybe where you live just needs more water?
Yes, they were dry but last time having it be too wet was a disaster! It could be the eggs were bigger although mine were considered large eggs. It’s hard to know when to add water because it starts pressing the pasta after 2 minutes and if you put in too much… It’s hard to tell too because humidity is different all the time.
Awesome! As someone else commented, persistence pays off! And it does indeed look very artisanal!
Awww… Thanks John!!!
May penne came out with no holes in it. What am I doing wrong
That is really strange Christine! Perhaps the disc was not secured properly?
There is a secondary piece to the Penne disc that you need to use. The dough basically goes around the inner disc to create the hole in the middle.
I LOVE this machine and it was a gift for my 9 year old…who also loves the machine.
While she was at her grandparents house I took over and made some squid ink pasta which turned out fantastic!
Glad you gave it a second try and I hope you are still having great success with it.
Saw this article after I bought my machine. I did experience a similar issue when I used cake flour instead of semolina. I had a hard time finding semolina locally but found a great deal on amazon. You might want to try it out. Also when I used the cake flour the second time I dusted the noodles lightly with floral to help keep them from sticking. Don’t give up its all about measuring.
Oops meant dated them with flour not floral 🙂
Cake flour?! Oh I can imagine that created issues for sure! Yup, you’re right, gotta use the measuring cups that come with the machine. Thanks Greg!
I add the liquid as soon as the paddle rotates around twice. Size of eggs should not matter if you’re only adding water up to the 95ml. What _could_ be different is the density of your flour. If you have a kitchen scale, measure the flour to 250g.
Excellent advice, thank you! I much prefer to measure out flour with a scale so that’s awesome.
we recently got this pasta maker and have made linguine twice so far, first time using flower and water only and second time adding eggs. Used their cups, followed the directions to a T. Pasta came out perfectly both times (nicer with eggs the 2nd time round, more smooth). We used plain unbleached white flour because i don’t have semolina to mix with it. We also cooked it a minute longer the second time around (4 minutes vs 3) and that made them much softer, the first time they were al dente which we don’t prefer.
All in all i love it! So easy and the clean up was a breeze. I washed everything in hot water while the pasta was cooking to avoid the dough drying out and hardening.
So glad you’re enjoying is Ella!
Just bought this machine from Williams Sonoma and for me the ratios of liquid to flour are way off. If I use the suggested amount, the mix is barely moist!!! I have upped the amount and then get a reasonable extruded product but on cooking it’s very chewy. I used at first just one egg and then changed to all egg with the same result. Not too happy with the product at this point. Also whatever happened to the rest period of the dough which is mandatory for hand made pasta?
Did you use the measuring cups they provided? I didn’t and that messed mine up. You know, I have been struggling with the whole “resting” issue since i received this machine and agree, the pasta should rest. I’m actually going to be making my pasta first in a food processor with some hand-kneading, resting and THEN putting it through the machine.
We’ve been using the Philips pasta maker for almost six months. I agree, if you make the pasta too wet, the noodles stick together. For the extruder to work, the pasta needs to be on the crumbly side. One way to mix/knead the dough longer is to unplug the machine just before it’s about to extrude. If you begin another cycle (10 minutes is better because all of the dough is easily extruded), then you get another 3 minutes of mixing/kneading.
We’ve found that the spaghetti-type noodles are fine. Just a little on the tough side. The penne, pappardelle, and lasagna have worked out for us (need to keep the penne noodles open or the dough squeezes closed), but they’re a little on the thick side.
My sister bought a Kitchenaid pasta roller and cutter and we were impressed with how their pasta turned. So we decided to buy one and test it out. The biggest difference we noticed was the actual kneading of the dough. The ratio of flour to egg is much less using the dough and KA process than with the Philips. 2 large eggs plus 180 grams of flour for making the dough and the KA process; 2 large eggs plus 250 grams of flour for the Philips.
The true kneading plus the resting period (20 minutes) results in a much softer dough and once rolled and cut, the pasta is less tough.
I haven’t tried the dough/resting process for the Philips yet. We would only use it to make the types of pasta we can’t make with the KA and the pasta attachments. For example, it might be worth trying the penne using already made dough. Don’t know if it will be too sticky for the Philips extruder. We’ll find out.
If you have any tips on how to make softer pasta (and not just by cooking it longer), I’d be interested to know. By the way, there’s a Facebook Philips Pasta Maker group that I’m waiting to join. Maybe they’ll have some additional thoughts. I really do want to make the Philips work. It is so much faster than making dough, resting, rolling, and cutting (15 min for the Philips, 45 minutes for the KA process).
Thanks for the update RP, you have been working with it a lot! I tried recently and it was so unreliable. Sometimes it wouldn’t even turn on and it is such a pain to clean.
For softer pasta, you really need to let the dough rest. I tried making my own dough and then getting the machine to extrude it but it didn’t work. Then I tried to make pasta sheets but it wouldn’t go through the extruder at all.
As a result, I’m getting rid of it. It’s just too much of a pain. I will make it by hand with the hand-cranked machine I have. It always works.
You really just need to keep experimenting with the machine.
I use a scale when measuring/weighing the ingredients. It really is an exact
science; much like baking.
I am still tweaking recipes to figure out what my favorite/perfect one will be.
I have experimented so far with flour ratios as well as wet ingredients.
Egg or no egg, to add a touch of oil or not, 90 or 95 g of water.
Dry: 125 g semolina / 125 flour (bread flour, wheat, or all purpose).
Or: 200 semolina / 50 flour (any kind), OR: 225 semolina / 25 flour ( any kind)
I have not tried a recipe with anything less than 125 g of semolina thus far.
I think the semolina gives the pasta firmness and substance for a more potential cooked ‘all dente’ consistency.
I know many people make pasta with just regular plain four of various varieties.
Good luck, and most of all, have fun! I am really enjoying my machine.
I had a similar experience after getting the machine for Christmas. I started with spaghetti as I have made that many times with my KA. I thought the dough looked very dry, but I had measured everything to spec so I let it go. One of my metal screws was cross threaded, so rather than extruding it blew the front of the machine off. I put it all back together and nothing extruded. I added 1/4 cup of water and it was too wet. Finally, I threw that dough away as it can be more difficult to improve dough than make it right from scratch. For my second attemp, I measured everything to spec and then adied water based on my eyes. It worked! By then, we had already made the backup box of dry stuff, but it worked. Tonight I will be attempting lasagna. I have the box just in case, but really hope it works. Problem is, I don’t know baking times or anything based on fresh pasta. This should be interesting.
I hope the lasagna turned out OK Shawn and smart to have a pasta backup just in case.
Hsn sells these and says 2 to 3 min to cook unless dried then longer
My noodle machine have some issues inside of it, too much used beacause im using it for my business here in philippines,please help me can i order the broken part of it?
My machine is exactly the same of your product,I bought it in singapore.
It is best to contact the company directly, I haven’t used this machine in years, wish there was more that I could do!
Right, I’m wondering about the resting also? Why doesn’t the machine do that? I’ve used the machine a few times as directed and the pasta does come out well but I’m still perplexed about the resting?