Let me just get this out of the way: an Instant Pot is a
pressure cooker by another name, and an air fryer is just a convection oven. These
are not new or revolutionary devices – they’re the end result of successful
re-marketing of things that have been around a long time.
There. I said it.
I love me a good kitchen gadget, but I’m leery of anything
that offers to revolutionize your cooking. People have been cooking for an awfully
long time and I think we’ve pretty much covered all the bases; the rest, as I’ve
said, is marketing. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t be swayed by a
single-use gadget that takes up counter space, provided it’s the right
gadget. And my new electric pasta maker is definitely the right gadget.
Gluten-free pasta is a pain. For starters, it’s stupidly
expensive – anywhere from $3-6 for an 8-ounce box, depending on the brand and
the store and the phase of the moon. The various blends and textures are
suspect; corn and quinoa seem to be the best blend overall, but you’re more likely
to find corn and brown rice, which disintegrates into a sticky mass if you cook
it for one second more than called for (which has no relation whatsoever to the
cooking time on the box, btw). (And that chickpea shit ought to be banned.) It
can be hard to find even in larger grocery stores. The selection of shapes is sadly
lacking; penne and rotini, for the most part, with the occasional spaghetti
thrown in. Maybe macaroni if someone was feeling wild and crazy when they
ordered. And fresh pasta? Fuggetaboudit. With the exception of the occasional
Aldi Find, fresh gluten-free pasta is the unicorn of the pasta world.
David and I have ventured into fresh pasta making on
occasion. It’s a fun project for an afternoon, even with the giant mess to
clean up afterwards. My main complaint is that gluten-free pasta dough is a
revolting slimy mass while you’re mixing it, which always makes me anxious that
it’s never going to smooth out and become dough; and that feeding it through
the rollers of the pasta machine is a giant pain in the ass. It has to go through
a zillion times and it takes at least 3 hands, one of which I’m lacking, and
the end result is usually still too thick because I get tired from all the
cranking. Hence the “afternoon project” status.
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| Yes - just like this! |
The reviews for this particular pasta maker, the Phillips Pasta and Noodle Maker Plus, swear up and down
that you can successfully make gluten-free pasta with it. I was willing to take
a gamble on a half-price refurbished model that would take a month to ship – so
much for instant gratification! – and I was looking for a Christmas gift for
myself anyway.
It did not disappoint. I used King Arthur
Measure-for-Measure flour mix and the recommended xanthan gum, weighing
everything on the kitchen scale. The flour went into the hopper, the
egg-and-water mix was poured through the top, and literally THREE MINUTES later
I had fresh pasta extruding out the front like the Play-Doh Fun Factory. I was cooking
for 4 of us so I popped in a second batch. It cooked up in less than 3 minutes
and we had a really nice base for the Bolognese sauce I’d spent all evening
simmering.
Cleanup was fast and easy. Yes, you have to disassemble all
the parts, but there are no small fiddly bits and nothing to cut yourself on.
Even the plastic die was relatively easy to clean with a brush and there’s
space to store everything so none of the parts are likely to get lost. I’m
ridiculously excited at the thought of being able to make fresh pasta in less
time than it takes to boil the water, for a fraction of the cost of substandard
dried pasta. Consider my cooking revolutionized!
