KitchenAid 4KRAV Ravioli Maker Attachment for Stand Mixers

I read a lot of the reviews, and bought this anyway, but was unsure. I figured what they heck, but it was what some of the positive reviews said that made me decide to get it.

I'm glad I did. I just used it, and wow, it was fun (if you like to cook), and easy. I did mess up a little, which turned out to make a small percentage of mine to not be sealed, but that was user error. But the main thing here is....I did not have to seal a single ravioli, and they cooked up just fine.

Most important things to do;
*roll pasta sheets to #3 on the pasta sheet roller....period.
*watch the youtube video with peter pasta. He has two videos, almost that same, but one actually says what settings he is using, which is THREE!!
*read the instructions that come with it....twice.

Simple huh? First and foremost, regardless of what recipe one uses and what they say to do, the setting for the pasta sheets is 3, not 5, not 7, not 42, but 3 - why reviewers complained when they set it to 5 or higher, I have no idea. Peter Pasta video AND the instructions say this is required for the raviolis to seal correctly. Maybe if you have a special pasta rolling pin, and hand make them, then they can be made thinner, but not for this machine.

Now, does this mean the the raviolis will be too thick and maybe doughy....nope. I think it's because the way the thing works, it stretches the dough a bit in the process.

While the unit is hand cranked, it's not that big of a deal.....and I'm not sure I would want it to be powered....it sucks the filling in quick enough as it is. I'm cooking for two, not 20. I made 4 dozen ravioli in just minutes...out of the three steps (mix dough, mix filling, roll dough, and making ravioli), making the ravioli was the quickest (even my first time).

There will be a bit of wasted dough, as there is the first set to get the dough started and there are three stripes along the length that get torn off (that separate the ravioli length wise). But, you can just roll it out and use it. The ravioli just tear apart, but don't try to speed along on the tearing part, or you tear them open a little like I did.

So what did I do wrong while operating the machine....well, I decided to make a bit more dough than I needed....then decided to turn it all into one sheet. My thought, once started in the machine, I would just make one continuous sheet of ravioli...how cool is that! The #3 sheet was about 5ft long, folded in half and started into the machine, a little over 2ft hanging down the sides. This made two problems. The first is that they were just too long to manage without stretching the dough - so i set the ends on the counter to hold the weight. This, as I found out later, slanted the sheets of dough through the feeder in the beginning, so the first 6 rows of ravioli, did not have dough on the one edge to pinch closed - though it did finish centering quickly enough. I only lost 6 ravioli out of...what, 4 dozen.

This also lead to another issue....which is why the instructions say only a certain amount, pesky instructions, I'm a guy, I don't need them. The ravioli eventually will get too heavy and start to stretch and tear off....after about foot or so of raviolis are made....which is about the distance to the counter...if you are not hanging the whole thing over the edge because you have a 5ft sheet of dough :-/ Try not to stretch the raviolis this way, as it will make it harder to separate them...but only a bit.

Hope this helps. The unit works great, well made, it would be nice if they made these attachments easier to clean, but they do work very well. Assuming you can handle the expensive price, you will love the way it works.

I've been happy with many other KitchenAid products, but this one is pure junk. The pasta roller attachment that KitchenAid also offers is great, but the width of it is so close to the size of this ravioli press, that the edges of the ravioli barely have enough dough to seal - and many of them pop open.

It's worth noting that although this does in fact attach to a standing mixer, it does not use the mixer's motor. You have to manually turn the crank with your hand.

I returned this piece of junk, and bought the VillaWare V5500 10-Square Ravioli Maker for $18. Save yourself some money and do the same.

I stumbled across a good meat ravioli recipe in the Joy of Cooking book. First time I made ravioli, and it came out fantastic; however, doing it all by hand (rolling and stuffing) is time consuming. Went out and purchased the KitchenAid Pasta Roller attachment, and was glad that I did.

Read the reviews here about the KitchenAid Ravioli Maker Attachment and was concerned why the reviews were so lop-sided (either really great, or really bad, no middle)? It caused me to find a local store that had a good return policy, in case I agreed with the negative reviews. I checked all my usual places: Macy's, Sams, Sears, JCPenny, WalMart, BedBath&Beyond, and William&Sonoma in the Dallas area. Only William&Sonoma had it in stock!

Took the KitchenAid Ravioli Maker home, and tried it out. Most of the ravioli's were torn, because I was using too thin of a setting on the Pasta Roller (Joy of Cooking recommends thinest setting - No. 8, KitchenAid recommends much thicker setting No. 5). I tried it again using the pasta roller's thicker No. 5 setting. This time, there weren't any tears; however, many of the ravioli's edges didn't seal properly. I manually had to seal most of the ravioli using a pastry bush, water, and finger pressure. When I cooked them, many of the seals opened, and spilled their contents into the cooking vessel. The ones that didn't open while cooking, didn't taste as good as the ones I had made by hand, because the pasta was much thicker.

I made another batch, with the exception of weting the interior surface of one side of the pasta sheet prior to rolling the Ravioli Maker. This time, more ravioli were sealed, but I still had to press close almost half. When I cooked the batch, there were still some that opened.

I might know why most stores that carry the KitchenAid - Pasta Roller Attachment DO NOT stock the Ravioli Maker Attachment. I'm speculating from my experience, and most of the reviews here, that stores that would stock the KitchenAid Ravioli Maker Attachment probably would have most of them returned. Why bother stocking something that has a high probability of being returned?

Does KitchenAid have a Quality Control Department? If so, their Quality Quality Engineer and Product Manager should be forced to use the product. Quality Control should be more than making sure the thing doesn't fall apart, it should be about making sure the thing safely and reliably does what it is supposed to do

When I returned the KitchenAid Ravioli Maker, I purchased a "Pastry Crimper/Sealer" for about $12, tried it out, and it worked first time, every time.