A Philips pasta maker was the first that caught my eye on the Williams Sonoma website, then I googled automatic pasta machines and read all the reviews I could find. I eventually bought a Gourmia GPM 630. http://www.gourmia.com/item.asp?item=10121
The jury is still out but getting warmer
:)The first three batches I made were abysmal flops and I was tempted to just ship it back, like another friend of mine, Laura, did with another brand that she just bought and failed with. But, stubborn individual that I am, I refused to fail. The first batch (spaghetti,) was good. This disc they described as linguini but is more what I would call fettuccini.
The main reason I got this one was because of the reviews (suspect a lot of them were Gourmia employees' now
:) ) and the large variety of shaping discs (13).How is the pasta?
First impression is that the pasta itself is not as light as the pasta I make by hand. Part of this, I think, is because the recipe that I had success with had olive oil in it - not something I add when I make it by hand - I do have a manual pasta maker and cutter and a manual extruder. The manual extruder is more finicky about the dough too.
That said: I think with a little tweaking I will come up with a lighter dough that will work. As far as resting is concerned, this machine gives you the option to not use the automatic function - which kneads the dough and immediately extrudes it. You can use manual function to mix the dough, let it rest and extrude it later.
Oh, and don't try to use the dough recipes that come with the machine - they failed - I tried using the measuring cup that came with it as well as weighing the flour and liquid (egg and water) - both sucked.
