The other day I bought a kitchen appliance called “Pasta Magic” and today I allowed it to come closer to the wonder that my spaghetti sauce is. After judging the results of this supposed time-saving device, I have to give it a warm thumbs down. Actually, not only do I have to give it the go-ahead, I really want to do it.
Opening it and looking at the contents, I found two containers, two strainer lids, two sealable sealing lids, instructions, and a thermal sleeve that is supposed to help you avoid burning your hand while pouring in the water you just used. to cook your pasta. I will review each of the components, because I have something to say about each one.
The containers are sturdy enough and don’t seem easy to tip over. They have a border around the base to keep them upright. They have a great flaw that I will comment on in a moment.
Strainer lids … suck. Tried for a while to get the one that used to “fit” into the container and failed. The thing was, while he was doing it, he couldn’t tell if he was failing or not. There was no click, and there was also no indication that they had not been pushed as far as they could.
The two locking sealing caps seemed fine at first, but they don’t click-seal either, so it’s not clear that they have been tightening the entire time.
The instructions are the best part of the whole package, in fact. They are clear and concise and tell exactly how to use the device.
The heated sleeve has no grip on the inside, so as you try to pour the water out of the Pasta Magic, the sleeve slides up and down the cooking cylinder.
And that brings me to what happened and why this is really useless.
I made the paste according to the instructions and waited the full 10 minutes listed in the instructions (it says 7-10). I removed the sealing cap and, grabbing the thermal sleeve, tried to pour the liquid out. Although the strainer lid was supposed to act as a strainer to strain the pasta, I decided this was my first time using Pasta Magic, so I would have a backup copy and put it in the sink. Well, the thermal sleeve slid off, the water pushed against the lid, which pulled it into the strainer, and since the cylinder didn’t have any kind of pour spout, the still nearly boiling water spilled over my hand. I turned it back upright and tried to pry the lid off my strainer so I could pour the pasta into place and further fry my fingertips. I finally cleared it out of the way and served the pasta so I could take a look.
Horrible. Some chunks of pasta were cooked well, some chunks were chewy, some chunks were ‘al dente’ and many were stuck together. I tried to separate those pieces with a fork and it was clearly undercooked.
We try to eat it anyway. Some people have the misconception that pasta must be sticky, undercooked, and unappetizing. I am not one of them.
* Physical quality: Poor … the lids won’t close, and that’s the main useless feature of this device.
* Ease of use: Poor … sleeve doesn’t grip the way it needs to and cylinder needs a pour spout of some kind
* Results: Poor … the pasta was pretty bad
That’s why I say “Pasta Magic makes pasta tragic”. Do not buy this except as a gift for relatives you hate.
On the plus side, we’ll be using them to store pasta on the counter. Perhaps the entire product should be promoted for that purpose.