Is fresh pasta better than boxed?

[quikah]

Kaido, did you ever buy this machine or know anyone who has one? My wife wants a pasta machine to make fresh soba noodles at home along with other fresh noodles. I'm thinking this machine fits the bill although it seems the ramen and udon discs are only available in Asia and Philips won't sell it here for some unknown reason.

I have one, it sucks. The pasta it makes is weird, sort of gritty. I have tried sooo many times varying the recipe, but I just cannot get anything close to what comes out of rolling. you really need to take the time to knead and let the dough rest to get good results.

 

[ponyo]

I have one, it sucks. The pasta it makes is weird, sort of gritty. I have tried sooo many times varying the recipe, but I just cannot get anything close to what comes out of rolling. you really need to take the time to knead and let the dough rest to get good results.

Thanks for the report. I haven't seen that mentioned in the user reviews. So what equipment do you use to make fresh pasta?

 

[quikah]

Thanks for the report. I haven't seen that mentioned in the user reviews. So what equipment do you use to make fresh pasta?

I have one of these type of machines, works ok. I don't make pasta that often and I haven't done any Asian style noodles before.

https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Maker-Machine-Stainless-Fettuccine/dp/B01COGM5YQ
If I made pasta often I would probably buy the pasta attachment for the kitchen aid mixer.

 

[ponyo]

I have one of these type of machines, works ok. I don't make pasta that often and I haven't done any Asian style noodles before.

https://www.amazon.com/Pasta-Maker-Machine-Stainless-Fettuccine/dp/B01COGM5YQ
If I made pasta often I would probably buy the pasta attachment for the kitchen aid mixer.

Wife doesn't want manual machine and I don't either. We won't use it if it's manual. We do have KitchenAid mixer so the pasta attachment could work. But it looks like it only has the spaghetti and fettuccine cutters. So Philips still looks like the best machine for us. I'm just going to have to buy it from a place with good return policy so if it does make weird gritty pasta, I can return it without problem.

 

[Kaido]

Kaido, did you ever buy this machine or know anyone who has one? My wife wants a pasta machine to make fresh soba noodles at home along with other fresh noodles. I'm thinking this machine fits the bill although it seems the ramen and udon discs are only available in Asia and Philips won't sell it here for some unknown reason.

Yup, it's great. Pain to clean the discs though. Fresh pasta cooks pretty quick tho. I have a more detailed review here:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/kitchen-appliance-discussion-thread.2478633/#post-38781601

Depends on how much you like fresh noodles. My wife is Italian & loves them. I'm fine with boxed (Fasta Pasta microwave noodle cooker FTW, no joke), but it is fun to make them fresh. I alternate between regular flour & semolina durum, with & without eggs. You have to do a few batches to get the ratio down so that the pasta comes out good.

You can buy the Asian discs off eBay, that's where I got mine. It's dumb that they don't just sell them on Amazon or Williams Sonoma or wherever. Mostly I wanted to make soba with buckwheat. I also buy my flour from a local restaurant store in bulk (25 pounds for $6), so it's convenient to have a pasta machine handy to make stuff from scratch. Not much cost savings though, $300 for the machine is basically a lifetime of boxed pasta lol.

If you do pick one up, spend some time perusing Serious Eats...they have some really really great articles on saucing pasta. The basics here:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/the-right-way-to-sauce-pasta.html

Start out with something like aglio e olio:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/02/spaghetti-aglio-olio-recipe.html

Here's a good light alfredo:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/lighter-fettuccine-alfredo-recipe.html

As far as Italian noodle dishes go, I pretty much grew up on the basics - spaghetti with red sauce & alfredo - so having lighter stuff like the recipes above is actually really nice. You can do both sauce & noodles/sauce in the Instant Pot as well, lots of pressure cooking options available! I like to do chicken in the Anova & then slice that into something like a quick homemade alfredo, pretty tasty & you don't feel heavy like you do after eating at Olive Garden.

 

[Kaido]

Wife doesn't want manual machine and I don't either. We won't use it if it's manual. We do have KitchenAid mixer so the pasta attachment could work. But it looks like it only has the spaghetti and fettuccine cutters. So Philips still looks like the best machine for us. I'm just going to have to buy it from a place with good return policy so if it does make weird gritty pasta, I can return it without problem.

My wife's parents gave us an amazing manual machine from Italy as a wedding gift. We've used it maybe once. We use theirs as a family activity when we visit, but at home, if we're not using boxed pasta, we just do it in the Philips. Again, it is kind of a pain to clean up (even immediately after...the flour mix hardens FAST, and there are lots of little holes to use their cleaning tool to poke through), but my results have been pretty good. I make fresh pasta as gifts from time to time, people tend to love it!

 

[Herr Kutz]

... I am thinking of forcing my wife to learn how to execute this pasta making. Is it worth the time invested?

:awe:

I'm not seeing why the time it takes really matters here.

 

[Oldie]

I really enjoy making tortellini stuffed with whatever sounds good at the time (usually some type of cheese concoction). I think it's very much worthwhile if you make a good sized batch now and then.

 

[Fritzo]

Just made some pasta last week...took 30 minutes (well, I premade the pasta dough the night before) Made lasagne bolognese and the family is still talking about it. That's one of those things you could eat every day but you only should eat it once every 3 months

 

[Murloc]

I just buy fresh pasta from the supermarket if I want it.

Besides, there are hybrids too, like dried tortellini.

Dogs shouldn't eat pasta or rice but rather potatoes according to second-hand dog nutritionist advice I heard, but some people in Italy give it to them simply because it's one of the most easily available cheap source of grains in Italy with unlimited shelf life if you don't have butterflies.

 

[Mike64]

http://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/when-use-fresh-pasta-versus-dry-pasta-article

+1

Americans (and many non-Italian Europeans), being "pasta newbies" in the greater scheme of things often look at this as "one being better or worse than the other", while the real answer is "neither/both, because they're they really quite different" (or as different as different kinds of pasta can be, anyway).

Among a few other things, at least in Italian practice, fresh pasta made at home is almost invariably egg-based, made with very finely ground (ie, 00) non-Durum wheat flour, while dried pasta is made with coarser Durum semolina (not Durum flour) and water only, which needs machinery (heavier-duty than a Kitchen Aid) to turn it into a well-mannered, smooth dough. And not only does factory-made pasta have a more pronounced wheaty/pasta-ish "flavor' (though many non-Italians think it's all fairly tasteless by itself), but more importantly, the former is "supposed to be" very tender, while a firmer texture with some degree of "toothsomeness" (which varies by region and individual tastes) is what's looked for in the latter.

Fwiw, you can also dry egg pasta for relatively short-term storage, and the taste/texture isn't vastly different from moist-fresh when cooked, but that's not what people (or at least Italians) mean when they talk about "dried" versus "fresh". (And maybe for that reason, they're more likely to refer to the former as "factory-made" rather than "dried".)

 

[ponyo]

Yup, it's great. Pain to clean the discs though. Fresh pasta cooks pretty quick tho. I have a more detailed review here:

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/kitchen-appliance-discussion-thread.2478633/#post-38781601

Depends on how much you like fresh noodles. My wife is Italian & loves them. I'm fine with boxed (Fasta Pasta microwave noodle cooker FTW, no joke), but it is fun to make them fresh. I alternate between regular flour & semolina durum, with & without eggs. You have to do a few batches to get the ratio down so that the pasta comes out good.

You can buy the Asian discs off eBay, that's where I got mine. It's dumb that they don't just sell them on Amazon or Williams Sonoma or wherever. Mostly I wanted to make soba with buckwheat. I also buy my flour from a local restaurant store in bulk (25 pounds for $6), so it's convenient to have a pasta machine handy to make stuff from scratch. Not much cost savings though, $300 for the machine is basically a lifetime of boxed pasta lol.

If you do pick one up, spend some time perusing Serious Eats...they have some really really great articles on saucing pasta. The basics here:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/the-right-way-to-sauce-pasta.html

Start out with something like aglio e olio:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/02/spaghetti-aglio-olio-recipe.html

Here's a good light alfredo:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/lighter-fettuccine-alfredo-recipe.html

As far as Italian noodle dishes go, I pretty much grew up on the basics - spaghetti with red sauce & alfredo - so having lighter stuff like the recipes above is actually really nice. You can do both sauce & noodles/sauce in the Instant Pot as well, lots of pressure cooking options available! I like to do chicken in the Anova & then slice that into something like a quick homemade alfredo, pretty tasty & you don't feel heavy like you do after eating at Olive Garden.

I searched for your review and couldn't find it. Thanks for the detailed review. I decided to get one and ordered it from Costco.com for the easy return. They have it for $250 and includes all 8 western pasta discs. I searched for the official asian discs on eBay but couldn't find it. I found the kit on Amazon but the third party wants $80 for the discs which sells for less than $22 in Australia.

I make pesto and alfredo sauces from scratch. It's simple to make the roux for alfredo and I use combo of half and half and heavy cream. I used to make my own marinara sauce until I discovered Paesana organic tomato and basil jar sauce at Costco. That's pretty close in taste to what I make so I switched to using that for convenience.

 

[ponyo]

I received the Philips pasta maker from Costco and the machine is awesome! I'm making fresh fettuccine noodle right now and it's a breeze. The machine is quieter than I expected and lot faster too. My wife is very happy.

I found the asian noodle discs on eBay for about $43 shipped. I'm going to order it now. I was holding off to see if I liked this machine enough to keep but even after one use, I know this Philips pasta maker is a keeper and we will be using it a lot. A huge thumbs up!

 

[Kaido]

I received the Philips pasta maker from Costco and the machine is awesome! I'm making fresh fettuccine noodle right now and it's a breeze. The machine is quieter than I expected and lot faster too. My wife is very happy.

I found the asian noodle discs on eBay for about $43 shipped. I'm going to order it now. I was holding off to see if I liked this machine enough to keep but even after one use, I know this Philips pasta maker is a keeper and we will be using it a lot. A huge thumbs up!

Excellent!! If you want to get into food storage:

1. Bulk storage pails: I use food storage pails to store my flour, which I buy in 25 or 50-pound bags from a local restaurant store ($14 for 50 pounds of all-purpose flour, woot woot!). 5-gallon is the standard size, although I buy 6 gallon pails for a little more headroom (make sure they're food-safe pails, not the ones from Home Depot!). You can get small 3-gallon ones or big 7-gallon ones too, although those can be a bit unwieldy.

The lids blow chunks, you need a special tool to pry them open. Instead, I buy gamma-seal lids. There's a ring you press on, then there's a corkscrew lid with a gasket that you spin on to seal it. VERY easy. I have a ton of these...jasmine rice, basmati rice, sugar, flour, etc. I keep them in the basement under the stairs for storage. Food-grade buckets & gamma-seal lids aren't cheap, but they last pretty much forever, so they are a good investment if you want to make food at home.

2. Kitchen large storage: For in-kitchen storage amounts for daily usage, I use OXO metal POP containers. The 2.4qt fit in my cabinets: ($21/ea)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051T93TE/

The 4qt ones ($23/ea) are taller & are better suited for stuff you use a lot of, like flour in pasta or cookies:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051T96P0

They aren't cheap, but they are pretty durable & do a good job sealing up the lid when you press the button

3. Kitchen small storage: For even smaller amounts (ex. I buy "bulk" baking soda & baking powder from Walmart), I use mason jars with plastic screw-on lids (instead of the stock 2-piece metal ring & plate lid system). So like for your pasta, I buy a small bag of durum semolina flour for dusting onto the finished all-purpose flour noodles to help dry them out a bit & prevent them from sticking.

4. Labeling: For the easy identification of bucket contents, I either use blue painter's tape & a Sharpie or else my little Brother label maker. I used to use chalkboard stickers & chalk ink pens, which look really nice, but it's easy to rub the words off & those stickers get expensive.

This system helps me find what I need (thanks to the labels), helps keep my kitchen organized (no messy bags or boxes for spills, everything is neat & clean in glass or plastic jars & bins), and lets me refill those containers cheaply from my bulk food pail storage. You'll be amazed at what you can do with your food storage too...freshly-made pasta, no-knead bread, pizza dough, brownies from scratch, etc. And everything tastes awesome...no preservatives or chemicals, you can use whatever premium ingredients you'd like & tweak the recipe to fit your palette. I'm not a pro at it yet, but I've learned enough over the last few years to set up a pretty solid system for making really delicious homemade food easily using tools like the Instant Pot, Anova, Philips Pasta Maker, and my food storage system with buckets & containers. Here's some NY-style pizza dough (60 seconds in the food processor to make, that's it! then let it chill in the fridge overnight, good for up to 5 days, can be frozen, can make pizza/breadsticks/calzones with it). Did a pepperoni pizza on the Baking Steel indoors the other day, so easy:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/basic-new-york-style-pizza-dough.html

No-knead bread:

Soft-batch peanut-butter cookies:

Loaded baked potatoes with pulled pork from the Instant Pot:

#TeamAppliances yo

 

[ponyo]

Wife made seafood noodle soup with the fresh pasta, littleneck clams, shrimps, and calamari. The noodle was extremely chewy (in a good way) and had great texture. The same style noodle would be perfect for homemade jajangmyeon. It only took the machine about 5-7 minutes total to make the noodles. That is quick and the machine does all the work. I can't wait to make some homemade udon and japanese style pork ramen.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Flour, egg, and salt are cheaper than a box of pasta...but boxed pasta is far more convenient and portable. I would choose fresh pasta if I made enough of it. I used to frequent an Italian restaurant that only had fresh stuff. It was the best.

 

[Kaido]

Flour, egg, and salt are cheaper than a box of pasta...but boxed pasta is far more convenient and portable. I would choose fresh pasta if I made enough of it. I used to frequent an Italian restaurant that only had fresh stuff. It was the best.

I'm curious what the actual numbers are...my local grocery store has 10 for $10 sales on the blue boxes of Barilla pasta all the time. I'd have to cost out what my flour cost is in the Philips Pasta Maker vs. boxed. There are some shapes I can't do in my automatic machine, like small shells, so I just buy boxed for that.

 

[ponyo]

Wife made spicy soba noodles for lunch. Again, the machine only took like 7 minutes to make fresh pasta. I don't care if the machine doesn't make financial sense. It's fun and the fresh pasta tastes better. So in that sense, the machine is a bargain.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I'm curious what the actual numbers are...my local grocery store has 10 for $10 sales on the blue boxes of Barilla pasta all the time. I'd have to cost out what my flour cost is in the Philips Pasta Maker vs. boxed. There are some shapes I can't do in my automatic machine, like small shells, so I just buy boxed for that.

Dumbed down, all purpose flour usually costs 50 cents/lb when not in bulk....so you can get about 5lbs of pasta for $2.50, not counting eggs, salt....so maybe $2.75-$3 for 5lbs. I bought spaghetti yesterday for $.73 per lb....so you could say dry pasta costs $4-6 per 5lbs, depending on brand.

 

[sactoking]

Dumbed down, all purpose flour usually costs 50 cents/lb when not in bulk....so you can get about 5lbs of pasta for $2.50, not counting eggs, salt....so maybe $2.75-$3 for 5lbs. I bought spaghetti yesterday for $.73 per lb....so you could say dry pasta costs $4-6 per 5lbs, depending on brand.

 

[Kaido]

Dumbed down, all purpose flour usually costs 50 cents/lb when not in bulk....so you can get about 5lbs of pasta for $2.50, not counting eggs, salt....so maybe $2.75-$3 for 5lbs. I bought spaghetti yesterday for $.73 per lb....so you could say dry pasta costs $4-6 per 5lbs, depending on brand.

Well now I'm curious how many pound(s) of pasta I typically eat in one sitting, lol.

 

[Captante]

Wife made seafood noodle soup with the fresh pasta, littleneck clams, shrimps, and calamari. The noodle was extremely chewy (in a good way) and had great texture. The same style noodle would be perfect for homemade jajangmyeon. It only took the machine about 5-7 minutes total to make the noodles. That is quick and the machine does all the work. I can't wait to make some homemade udon and japanese style pork ramen.

now I'm starving ... thx a lot!

 

[Scarpozzi]

Well now I'm curious how many pound(s) of pasta I typically eat in one sitting, lol.

I was saying lbs because that's how dry pasta is sold and it compares closely to the dry weight of flour. Typically, a lb box of pasta will serve 4-5 US adults comfortably....but that's based on the fact that most Americans eat too much pasta.

 

[ponyo]

I think I paid like $5 and change for 25 lb bag of all purpose flour. The bread flour was little more. I think I paid like $15 for 50 lb bag of the bread flour. My wife likes to bake so we use lot of flour and have all kinds of specialty flours as well. We used the pasta machine like 5 times last week. We'll probably make fresh pasta once or twice a week at minimum.

We made some homemade kimchi pork dumplings yesterday and I tried to use the lasagna noodle disc to make fresh wonton wrappers. I knew the lasagna noodle would be too thick but I thought I could use wooden rolling pin to manually roll out the fresh lasagna noodle and make it thinner and cut into wonton wrapper. The machine made great lasagna noodle but the noodle wouldn't really roll out without breaking. So I ended up using fresh store bought wonton wrappers for the dumplings which turned out awesome. But now I have to make lasagna this week since I have leftover fresh lasagna noodles.

 

[Kaido]

I think I paid like $5 and change for 25 lb bag of all purpose flour. The bread flour was little more. I think I paid like $15 for 50 lb bag of the bread flour. My wife likes to bake so we use lot of flour and have all kinds of specialty flours as well. We used the pasta machine like 5 times last week. We'll probably make fresh pasta once or twice a week at minimum.

We made some homemade kimchi pork dumplings yesterday and I tried to use the lasagna noodle disc to make fresh wonton wrappers. I knew the lasagna noodle would be too thick but I thought I could use wooden rolling pin to manually roll out the fresh lasagna noodle and make it thinner and cut into wonton wrapper. The machine made great lasagna noodle but the noodle wouldn't really roll out without breaking. So I ended up using fresh store bought wonton wrappers for the dumplings which turned out awesome. But now I have to make lasagna this week since I have leftover fresh lasagna noodles.

Yeah, we eventually switched over to the frozen potsticker dough discs for doing dumplings & stuff. So much easier to just mix the filling & then fill up pre-cut circles of dough than to sit there & make 50 or 100 of them for freezer meal prep haha.