Have you ever made pasta? No, not just boiling store-bought noodles in water. We’re talking about making actual pasta from scratch.
It may sound a little intimidating, but it’s actually pretty simple. All you need are a few eggs, some flour, water, a little time, and, of course, a good pasta maker. You’ll have to track down your own recipe, but we can direct you to some great pasta makers that will make the process both easy and delicious.
For most small appliances, we recommend an electric option. (Hand grinding coffee beans, for instance, yields great results, but the effort it takes just isn’t worth it for daily coffee.) When it comes to pasta makers, however, we prefer the manual machines. You don’t have to exert much energy to work these pasta makers, and since you’re already taking the time to make your own handmade noodles, why not take a few extra minutes to make sure that they’re perfect?
Here are some great manual pasta makers (and a few worthy electric ones) to get you started on your homemade adventure.
Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker ($67)
The Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker is a sturdy and reliable machine that churns out some fantastic pasta. This machine can make fettuccine, spaghetti, and tagliolini straight out of the box. You can also make flat dough sheets that can be used for ravioli, or buy attachments to make other pasta varieties, such as linguini. The adjustable rolls on the Marcato make it easy to change the thickness of your noodles. With ten settings, you can make pasta as thin as 0.3 milimeters or as thick as 2.5 milimeters.
Marcato inserted the word “wellness” into the name of this device to highlight its anodized aluminium rollers and cutters. Not only do these special rollers give this pasta maker better grip on your dough, they’re free from heavy metals, such as chromium and nickel, that you don’t want seeping into your pasta.
Imperia Pasta Maker Machine (150) By Cucina Pro ($48)
The Imperia Pasta Maker is made in the same vein as the Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 listed above. It’s a sturdy, reliable, heavy-duty device that can make a wide range of pastas in a variety of thicknesses. In fact, the biggest difference between these two appliances comes in small details. For instance, the Imperia has a wooden handle, unlike the ABS plastic handle on the Marcato Atlas, and chrome-plated steel rollers, unlike the Marcato’s aluminum rollers. Both pasta makers are listed near the $50 price point.
So which one is better? In this instance, it really comes down to personal preference.
Atlas Electric Pasta Machine ($170)
The Atlas Electric Pasta Machine looks like a classic pasta maker, but it’s missing one key component: The handle.
If churning out your pasta doesn’t sound appealing to you, then you might want to check out this little machine. This device has an electric motor that will automatically pull the dough through the rollers for a nearly hands-free cooking experience. This pasta maker is capable of making three varieties of pasta as soon as its plugged in. If that’s not enough, you can add various attachments to expand your pasta making options.
Gourmia GPM630 One-Touch Automatic Pasta Maker ($130)
The Gourmia GPM630 is an all-in-one pasta maker. You don’t need bowls or mixing spoons or anything other than this device to make great pasta. While most pasta makers require you to make dough before hand, the Gourmia GPM630 does all of that work for you. Simply dump your ingredients into the chamber, select your desired pasta type, and in about 15 minutes you’ll have some freshly made noodles.
The Gourmia GPM630 has a 1-pound capacity, which is more than enough space to make a dinner’s worth of pasta, and comes with 13 pasta shaping disks so you can extrude everything from udon noodles to angel hair pasta.
Phillips Pasta Maker ($238)
The Phillips Pasta Maker is another device that makes homemade pasta as easy as pushing a button. After you load the ingredients, the Phillips Pasta Maker will automatically mix the ingredients, knead the dough, and extrude one of four pasta varieties. This machine comes with spaghetti, penne, fettuccini and lasagna disks, but you can purchase additional disks to expand your pasta options.
This pasta maker has a convenient drawer for storing your shaping disks, and comes with a cleaning tool that promises to de-dough your disks easily.
