Cuisinart Bread, Pasta & Dough Maker Machine, White, PM-1

Makes amazing pasta love it so easy

Easy to use and easy to clean and store. Makes great pasta.

Great little machine. It knows what to do, just push Auto and it'll mix and extrude. The pasta has to be like wet flour, that's it, and it'll extrude. That was the hardest part - how much water. The plastic measuring cups it comes with are pretty useless, can't see the line.

I’ve made my first whole wheat spaghetti with it and I was amazed on how easy and fast it was. They tasted great and I can’t wait to try out all the different attachments and recipes. Super easy to use and super easy to clean.

I just packed up my Pastafecto. It's all seized up with pasta dough. My hands were not big enough or strong enough to undo the locknut, nor were my husband’s, and Cuisinart did not include a locknut wrench with the appliance. Frankly, if Cuisinart had bothered to include an explanation of the four operating buttons, what their names mean, how to turn them on and off, and which to use when in the recipes, we might not have had to return it. I made the mistake of thinking I understood the buttons, and put in my pasta flour and then my egg mixture. Before I knew it, the machine had mixed up a solid ball of dough that would not extrude. I managed to retrieve it from the bowl to cut up and use later, but I could not get any dough out of the shaft. I filled the sink to capacity and soaked the bowl and shaft, but only a little of the dough was removable. If after reading this review you still think you want to try a Pastafecto, I strongly recommend that you make a few trial runs with the buttons and an empty machine, so you know how they work and can be quick to stop it if necessary. That was my third experiment with the Pastafecto, so by then I was pretty well done with the whole thing. The first two tries were with dough for bread — also disappointing. I had to pull the dough out and knead by hand to salvage it, but at least it wasn’t stuck in the extruder end and I was able to dismantle the machine. Cuisinart has built an attractive appliance that goes together easily and seems to have a decent motor. But there are several flaws: The bowl with its attachments can be pulled from the base while the machine is running, if you’re not careful. Liquid from the mixture escapes through the extrusion end when you’re trying to make dough. You need to keep a catch-bowl below it. The flour capacity is limited, ranging only from 2 cups minimum to 3.25 cups max. Liquids have to be carefully apportioned. The manual is very weak. There’s a list of parts and how they go together, a pasta chart and a few bread and pasta sauce recipes. No explanation of how to use the machine itself. An instructional video, especially one showing the texture of the pasta when it’s ready to extrude, would be nice. There is no on/off switch, just four buttons labeled Auto/Stop, Knead Dough, Extrude Pasta and Mix, with no further explanation of how the buttons work, how long you have to hold them down (not intuitive), and which ones (or a combination) should be used for which recipes. The recipes for bread are clear enough — you use the Bread paddle and the Knead Dough button. But there is no explanation of the pasta operation. Do you start with the bread paddle and switch to the extruder paddle? Do you start with the Mix button and switch to the Extrude Pasta button? The manual is mute. How to fit and remove the pasta discs into their housing is not explained. (Hint: Use the sharp tip of a small knife in the seam and push sideways to carefully dislodge the disc.) The operation of the cutting disc is not immediately apparent and not explained. (I’m guessing you’re supposed to turn it to cut the pasta. I never got that far.) No locknut wrench is provided. Small hands are not able to grasp the nut fully enough to turn it. If dough gets caught inside the shaft, there's no way to remove it. There are quite a few parts, and though they’re all dishwasher-safe, they all should be washed before putting them in the dishwasher. Somewhere I read that it helps to let the dough dry on the extruder discs and then push it out with the supplied tool one hole at a time, but of course that's tedious. I bought this appliance to save time and wear and tear on my arthritic hands, and to make homemade Einkorn bread and pasta. Having tried it three times, I’ve given up, and guessing by the ratings, a lot of other buyers have done the same. It’s a pity, because it would only take a little effort on the part of the manufacturer to change the ratings from 59% to 89%.

This machine has made making fresh pasta at home achievable even during a busy weeknight schedule. I make two batches and freeze some raw to make things even faster. Fresh tastes so much better than the dried pasta you get from the store, and it does not take long to make!

This thing is way too high maintenance for an average pasta lover. I can never get the proportions right and end up with a dough lump that is stuck in this thing and unusable unless I want to roll it out and cut it myself

Making homemade pasta is super easy with this pasta maker! I've made it a few times now and have only used the attachment that makes spaghetti. You just add the ingredients and the it pushes pasta out! It takes about 30 minutes to get a pound of pasta. Don't be concerned about how crumbly the pasta dough is. I thought there was no way it would come out formed, but it does! Love it!