Pasta Extruder for Rotini

[kittonian]

My wife and I make pasta at least once a week, and right now we have both a Marcato Atlas, and the KitchenAid mixer pasta attachment. She prefers to make the dough by hand and then extrude or sheet using one of the machines. She also prefers that when making shapes, to have a motorized solution.



Last week she made this great pasta salad, but it was supposed to have rotini pasta and we do not have a die for that shape. So, instead she used the KitchenAid fussili attachment and then augmented each piece by hand. Took forever and she doesn't ever want to do that again (who can blame her).


Since then, I have been looking for a rotini die for the KitchenAid, but apparently that does not exist. We are not opposed to purchasing a new machine, especially since the KitchenAid mixer is quite a number of years old, however, all of the pasta extruder machines I have found also want to make the dough, and we have no interest in that.


I also don't want the "attach it to the counter and start cranking slowly by hand" solution. There are a few of them out there but it looks like a real pain to use, and they want $350+ for the tool.


What I am looking for is a machine that she can load the dough into, just like she does with the KitchenAid. A machine that she can purchase additional dies to make whatever pasta shape is needed for the recipe of the day, and that won't exhaust her to use.


There are tons of commercial machines for thousands of dollars out there, but this is just for the two of us at home. I looked at the Phillips pasta maker, as there is a custom die on Etsy to make rotini, but that too mandates that it makes the dough for you.



Does this exist?

[Kathleen]

I don't have your answer, but am sure someone will!

Welcome to DC though! I hope you share some of your dishes!

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know much about those extruders (except that they cost too much, when I looked into them years ago, and it sounds like they still do!), but why can't you make your own dough, and stick it in the machine, to extrude it?

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Check out these videos and site for making pasta shapes, no extruder required.
.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1teUhznIYeU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-3-8itpjc

Hungry Cravings: Adventures in Extruded Pasta

Seeeeeya;Chief Longwind of the North

[kittonian]

Thanks for the welcome.


I don't care about the expense of purchasing the right machine, but I'm not willing to spend $2k on a commercial pasta extruder just to make a different shape.


You cannot just put dough into an extruder that is designed to make the dough as part of the process. That's not how it works.



Also, appreciate the videos to do this all by hand but I specifically stated that we already know how to do it by hand and have no interest in doing so. We are definitely looking for a motorized solution.

[powerplantop]

I did see a disk for a Panasonic machine that will make rotini on Etsy.

[kittonian]

Are you talking about the disc on Etsy for the Phillips extruder? If so, the problem is that the Phillips products requires the dough to be made in the machine.

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The last link in my post was not a video, but a link to a blog where the blogger used a KitchenAid extruder attachment that they were very satisfied with.. you might take a look and see if it meets your needs. The KA lets you make your own dough, and then feed it into the hopper.

Seeeeya' Chief Longwind of the North

[kittonian]

As I mentioned in my original post, we already own the KitchenAid pasta attachment and that's the exact type of product we are looking for, but with the option to purchase additional dies. KitchenAid does not offer additional dies, and is a proprietary product where no 3rd party makes them either.

[medtran49]

Originally Posted by kittonian

As I mentioned in my original post, we already own the KitchenAid pasta attachment and that's the exact type of product we are looking for, but with the option to purchase additional dies. KitchenAid does not offer additional dies, and is a proprietary product where no 3rd party makes them either.

Are you sure about that? There are third party cutters and dies for their meat grinder attachment that actually work better than the KA, especially the cutter blade.

[kittonian]

Originally Posted by medtran49

Are you sure about that? There are third party cutters and dies for their meat grinder attachment that actually work better than the KA, especially the cutter blade.

I have looked everywhere, and also asked a custom die manufacturer that makes dies for the large industrial machines. If you know of a place that I can purchase 3rd party dies for the KitchenAid pasta attachment I would love to know about it, because that's exactly what I've been looking for.

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

This company offers dies for all kinds of extruders. They also custom build dies and give instructions for measuring your required die size. They might be worth a look. - https://pastaextruderdies.com/

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

[kittonian]

That is who I already spoke with and who told me that they know of no one who makes dies for the KitchenAid because it's a proprietary design.

[taxlady]

Does the die have to be for rotini? Would a die for fusilli be good enough? The two pasta shapes are very similar. I can't tell them apart in pictures. I just got this ad for a pasta extruder for Kitchenaid that includes a die for fusilli. Yes, it's a Canadian site, but they might ship to the US. They have a toll free number.

https://williamsfoodequipment.com/ki...ogIkpLczVTNSJ9

I just looked up rotini on Wikipedia. It redirects to a page about fusilli. It also says, "Fusilli [fuˈzilli], commonly known as Rotini in the U.S., are a variety of pasta that are formed into corkscrew or helical shapes." Maybe you just need to look for a fusilli die.

[kittonian]

Again, I already have the KitchenAid pasta attachment and all the dies that come with it, including fusilli. While pictures on the Internet show an almost identical shape between rotini and fusilli, there are actually many different dies for each that shape the pasta with more or less rotations. The fusilli KitchenAid die does a slight twist and then you have to mold it a bit more by hand. It is nowhere near the the shape of true rotini or a heavily rotated fusilli.

In fact, I checked out the link you provided and the image they show of the slightly twisty pasta coming out of the machine is exactly what their idea of fusilli is.

For reference, I attached a photo of the shape I am after.

I appreciate all the responses but it appears that this does not exist outside of the commercial arena. The lowest priced machine I could find, that will allow me to use custom dies in any shape I wish, was around $2k, and each die is at least $65. On top of that, all of these machines mandate that you allow the machine to make the dough because apparently they need a drier, rougher dough that isn't possible doing it by hand. The cost is simply not justified for a different shape.

So, we'll either make it by hand or the fusilli will be good enough.

[taxlady]

This is what the fusilli that I buy, made by an Italian pasta company, looks like. I'm not seeing the difference.

[Kathleen]

Originally Posted by kittonian

I appreciate all the responses but it appears that this does not exist outside of the commercial arena. The lowest priced machine I could find, that will allow me to use custom dies in any shape I wish, was around $2k, and each die is at least $65. On top of that, all of these machines mandate that you allow the machine to make the dough because apparently they need a drier, rougher dough that isn't possible doing it by hand. The cost is simply not justified for a different shape.

So, we'll either make it by hand or the fusilli will be good enough.

Please share how to make it by hand! I've never seen it done!