BowTie Buddy – 3D Printed Farfalle Pasta Kitchen Tool

To me, cooking and engineering go hand in hand. Using CAD, Design, & cooking skills, you can create a simple but effective tool to easily shape the perfect farfalle pasta.

In this Instructable, I'll show you how to design and customize your own farfalle pasta tool, along with a super simple pasta dough recipe. This project is super simple but has amazing results!

Tools:

1. 3D Printer
2. Basic Kitchen Tools
3. Pot to Boil Water
4. Cutting Board / Plate
5. Rolling Pin
6. Strainer
7. Gloves (recommended)

Materials:

1. Pasta Dough
2. Flour
3. Eggs
4. Food-safe Epoxy Resin

Creating a tool that suits your needs perfectly is easy using CAD software like Fusion 360. You can create & modify the finger slots, edge textures, and thickness settings by just changing a few settings.

Changing the Finger Slots:

You can quickly switch the sizes of the finger slots by simply editing the radius of the slot in the very first sketch icon in the timeline.

Creating your Pasta Edge Textures:

Located on the bottom of the BowTie Buddy are marking tools to create patterns and that ‘professional’ look that all home chefs are looking for. To make your own edge textures for the ends of the dough, you can create simple patterns that make your pasta unique to you! I included a bunch of examples that you can create & experiment with to customize your pasta, along with a fork tool where you can create your patterns and quickly print them out.

1. Fork lines
2. Triangle Points
3. Smooth Waves
4. Knurled Grooves

Changing Thickness:

Bowtie pasta can be amazing at many different thicknesses, mostly up to personal taste. To change the thickness of the cut on the BowTie Buddy, simply add or remove height from the side cutting tool.

Using a food-safe filament is ideal, however, any filament is adequate for printing because of the sealing process, but I recommend printing the files on 50 % infill with a brim or raft to prevent warping.

FDM 3D printing is incredible for developing quick functional prototypes with unlimited possibilities. Unfortunately, there are certain limitations to what you should make with 3D printing. Oftentimes, it is discouraged to create food-related tools with 3D printing, but simply using food-safe epoxy resin to fill in the small gaps between layers can make your BowTie buddy safe to use in your kitchen. Additionally, because all pasta dough will be boiled before eating, this is just an extra precaution for your pasta.

For more information on why 3D printing with food can be a problem, see this source: https://www.makeuseof.com/are-3d-printed-utensils-food-safe/

See your epoxy for differences in instructions, but for the most part, it should be relatively similar:

1. Put on latex gloves if desired.
2. Mix specified volues of your resin and hardener into a disposable cup
3. Stir for 3 minutes, making sure to go along the walls and floor to mix all parts of the container
4. Take a paint brush and apply a layer across the surface of the BowTie Buddy
5. Leave for 24 hours while the resin cures

Don’t worry it’s almost time to eat! Once the epoxy has fully cured around the tool, you can begin making your dough. Luckily, pasta dough is so easy to make that it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. The following recipe is for a single serving of pasta dough:

1. Place either ½ cup of flour in a pile on a plate or cutting board. Then pat down a divot in the middle, creating a bowl with the flower.
2. Crack 1 egg right into the center of the flower and slowly combine the two while mixing with a fork.
3. Once the ingredients seem to combine, you can start kneading and folding until it is one consistent color.
4. Place the dough in a plastic bag and let it rest for at least 30 minutes
5. Use a rolling pin to thin out the dough into a large square at least 1/16 inch thick (thin)
6. It’s time to use your BowTie Buddy to cut out and shape your pasta into the perfect farfalle and stamp in your preferred shape & place onto a drying rack or plate. (See step 5 for more info.) Repeat step 5 with scraps until all the dough has been shaped.
7. Finally, quickly cook the pasta in boiling water for 2+ minutes, depending on the thickness of your sheet. When cooked, remove pasta from water with a strainer and serve warm.

The BowTie Buddy is easy and (I would say) fun to use. Once you have properly prepared your sheet of dough, you are ready to stamp out your bowties.

1. Place the BowTie Buddy in a piece of dough large enough to cover all edges.
2. Press down and wiggle left and right just like a cookie cutter.
3. Remove the piece of dough and place it within the cutting side of the BowTie Buddy.
4. With one finger pushing into the center of the pasta, pinch on both sides and remove from the tool.
5. (Optional) At this point, your pasta is fully shaped and ready to cook. If you want to add a flare of personality or fanciness, stamp the pasta edges with your patterns to create a unique look.

Add your favorite pasta sauce and dig in!