Thank you to eBay and ShopStyle for sponsoring this post.

This year is all about finding little joys. That perfect first cup of coffee in the morning, the cozy holiday-movie-watching Friday night with the family, the crisp air on the neighborhood walk…it’s what we have this year, so it’s what we focus on.

If you’re a fellow food fan like me — perusing your favorite cookbooks time and again, planning your days around trying a new recipe and getting way too excited about fancy donuts…you may well be interested in the new obsession I’m gonna show you here…fresh pasta with the Phillips Avance Pasta & Noodle Maker.

This Pasta Maker Is My Newest Kitchen Obsession (+ Other Cool Refurbished Appliances At eBay)

I am currently, perhaps, WAY too excited about how flour, egg and water come together into the perfect food. Have you had fresh pasta? I swear, if you have not, please figure out how you can get some STAT. It is a completely different experience than dried pasta from the grocery store. For those of you who already know? The answer to always having it at your fingertips is this. awesome. pasta. machine. And buying a certified refurbished one through eBay is a real win win…less expensive, eco-conscious and still like-new. Amazing. You may have seen that Kat recently went this route for her Bose speaker family gift!

pasta maker

My Newest Kitchen Obsession: Fresh Pasta

The highlighting factor here for me is NO FLOUR MESS. That’s right. No flour mess. Those of you who have handmade pasta before know how amazingly worth it it is — but gosh the mess. Flour all over for a dish that gets gobbled up in no time flat. Worth it? Still, yes. But if you want to make it often, with less mess, you gotta try this Phillips Pasta & Noodle maker.

And can I say I love an appliance that stores all its own accessories?? Brilliant. The machine comes with a measuring cup that stores in the top well when not in use, plus a cleaning tool, a pasta cutter and discs to create various shapes: linguini, penne, spaghetti and lasagna (which can also be used to make ravioli and wontons!)

I was skeptical. I didn’t believe it would be that easy. But it is. Fresh pasta and clean-up in like 20 minutes. Daaaang. I’ve only had this thing a couple of days, and I’ve already made pasta four times. Haha. My bubble-friend (that sounds weird) Ana and I tried it out together the first time. Then I made some for Posy while we took pictures. Then, that same night, I made some for ramen later in the week and made linguini noodles for carbonara for dinner for us. Haha. We’ve created a pasta monster over here. (Ooh, and gluten-free friends, you can make your own fresh GF pasta!)

How I Use The Philips Avance Pasta Maker

So, let’s get down to the process of making the yummy pasta. It’s super-easy. First, measure (carefully) the flour. Like most bakers know, it’s best to weigh your ingredients for the perfect end result. Put the flour into the top well of the machine.

Secondly, measure (carefully again) your egg and water mixture. The maker comes with a cookbook with a few great recipes, but my favorite does call for an egg. Lightly beat your egg and add enough water to equal 95g, in this case.

So, the flour is in the top well of the machine, you’ve turned the power on (it will go to Automatic setting, um, automatically), you’ve put the lid on and then you press PLAY. It will start rotating the flour around in the well. You then slowly pour the liquid through the little slots on the top of the lid.Voilà. That’s like most of your involvement already done.

The machine continues to mix the dough for the right amount of time. (If you’re a seasoned pasta maker, you do have the option to then hit the pause button to let the dough rest for your desired time when it stops the mixing countdown.) Otherwise, the machine then switches to the extruding setting automatically. Get ready with your little included pasta ‘cutter’ as it’ll come out fast at first. Cut the pasta to your desired length.

It’s super-fun for the whole family. Sienna had a blast making this with me and even came back for the second round. She usually gets bored when I’m excited about kitchen things, but this is like the grown-up version of the Playdoh spaghetti factory so…

The machine brilliantly switches back and forth to get all that dough through the disc. I tried a couple of different recipes from the book, but the semolina, egg + water recipe was my favorite. I’ve included that below.

Tips for Quick Pasta Machine Clean-up

Most of the recipes included make 2-4 servings. This pasta is quite filling compared to dried, so you won’t need quite as big of a serving as you may be used to. If you do want to make a second batch, it’s quick and easy to do so. And there’s a little spot for the tools in the same drawer as the discs. SO handy.

I just cleaned the well and mixer off with my hands, scooping up the big bits of dough and throwing them in the compost/trash (don’t put much dough down your disposal, folks). Then, I popped it back together for the second round. You do want to remove most of the leftover dough so it doesn’t mess up your ratio for the second batch, but there’s no need to fully wash between batches unless you’re switching to gluten-free.

For regular clean-up, when you’re done for the day, I do the same. Brush out all the big bits of dough into the compost or trash, wipe out the well and the mixer, use the little clean-up tool to poke the bits of dough from the disc(s), rinse everything in hot water and let it dry on a towel on the counter.

The little pointy end of the cleaning tool allows you to get dough from around the edges, and it’s honestly way quicker than I thought, if you do it all dry and then do a hot water wash at the end.

My Favorite Fresh Semolina Pasta Recipe

The book that comes with the pasta makers has quite a few recipes, but this was my favorite of the couple of combos I tried. The pasta came out smooth and lovely, easily from the machine, and the texture and taste are ah-mazing. You’ll never go back. The tooth on this pasta…the tooth. It’s beyond. We are going to have some delicious holidays at-home ahead, friends.

More Great Small Refurbished Appliances At eBay

Not sure you want to start cranking out fresh pasta? No worries. eBay has TONS of other amazing kitchen items in the certified refurbished section. One of my kitchen essentials is my KitchenAid stand mixer, and they have those, as well as hand mixers, sous vide wands (stay tuned on that one!), rice cookers, air fryers and cold brew coffee makers. I’ve put a few favorites here for you to browse.

What recipes are you making for cozy days at home this holiday season? We all have our favorites! You can even use this pasta maker with different attachments to make shortbread cookies! (Adds to cart.)

I hope you are all able to enjoy some of those small joys right now, whether it’s fresh pasta or your favorite holiday album or a cozy family movie night. Happy coziest time of the year, friends.

xo,

L

Thank you so much to ShopStyle & eBay for sponsoring this post. I am ALWAYS down for trying out new awesome kitchen appliances that help me make some of my favorite foods and you have so many great items to choose from. Love love that these are not getting wasted somewhere and that you have this green option in your certified refurbished products. Thank you readers, again, so much for your support of TME this year. It does not go unnoticed. As usual, all thoughts and opinions and countless plates of pasta are my own…

Hey, hey from Portland, OR. Would love for you to follow me over on Instagram @laurajansenstyle for all things rad-casual mom wear, lots of foodie pics and donuts, kitchen dance parties and some social justice. xo

Lovely photos by Posy Quarterman Photography