The best pasta makers will do a whole load more than just knead and cut your dough. Some of the highly rated gadgets will even do the mixing for you. With a manual pasta maker you’ll have to feed the machine with your dough while winding the hand crank. And little hands will love getting involved with this process. While electric pasta makers will do all the hard work for you at the press of a button. Any way you look at it, these devices are time savers when it comes to making homemade pasta. But you can also use pasta makers to create noodles, pie crusts or flatbreads. The very best pasta makers allow you to transform a ball of dough into sheets of lasagne or create a multitude of pasta shapes with a variety of different thicknesses. Plus, once you’ve finished with your gadget, many of the best pasta makers can be dismantled and stashed away in your kitchen cupboard until your next carb creation. If you’re looking for other ways to get creative in the kitchen, check out our guide to the best stand mixers (opens in new tab). Or, if you’re looking for easy ways to cook up a feast, check out our guide to the best Instant Pots (opens in new tab).
1. Philips HR2375: Best pasta maker overall
The Philips HR2375 pasta maker is an electric pasta machine that does pretty much all of the work for you. This maker lets you add the ingredients for fresh pasta and then creates a 1/2lb of pasta within ten minutes. Complete with four different discs to place over the opening, this machine can make a wide range of pasta including spaghetti, penne, noodles, and fettuccine. What’s great about this machine is that as the maker does all the mixing for you, you won’t need to clear any flour and messy ingredients up off your countertops. The majority of the parts are also dishwasher friendly, making this appliance a great choice for cooks who want fresh pasta but don’t want to spend hours making it. This is one of the most pricy pasta makers we reviewed however, it’s also one of the easiest to use as you essentially just add ingredients and choose which kind of pasta you’d like. A few user reviews also mentioned that these machines don’t last very long, which is concerning given the price.
Read our Philips HR2375 pasta maker review (opens in new tab)
2. CucinaPro Imperia Pasta Machine: Best pasta maker on a budget
The CucinaPro Imperia pasta machine is a solid appliance that is easy to use and offers great value for money. This maker turns dough into sheets of pasta, as well as spaghetti and fettuccine, but if you want to make other varieties of pasta, you will have to buy separate attachments that can really bump the price up of your overall spend. This pasta maker comes with a sturdy clamp so that it doesn’t move around when you pass the dough through it. Unlike the Philips pasta maker though, the parts on this maker aren’t all dishwasher friendly. The maker has a hand crank which can take a bit of practice, however, it does allow you to carefully control the pasta making process.
Read our CucinaPro Imperia review (opens in new tab)
3. Weston Roma Electric Pasta Machine: Best noodle pasta maker
The Weston Roma Electric Pasta Machine lets you make more than just traditional noodles like lasagna, spaghetti, and fettuccine. Using this model, you can also whip up soba noodles, venison ravioli, venison pho, butternut squash ravioli, and more. This electric pasta maker has nine thickness settings, so you have plenty of choices. You hand feed the sheets of pasta into the maker’s combing tool. However, the dough must be the right thickness or it will clog the machine. In case you need to clear jams, the machine automatically stops when you lift the safety cover to protect you from injury.
Read our Weston Roman Electric Pasta Machine review (opens in new tab)
4. Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Machine: Best basic pasta maker
The Italian-made Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 pasta maker is a hand-crank machine that weighs just a bit over 3 pounds and is rather short. In addition, it disassembles, making it a snap to store in any kitchen cupboard. This sturdy pasta machine lets you make fresh lasagna, fettuccine, and tagliolini. Separately, you can buy 13 additional accessories to make more types of pasta as well as a pasta drive motor. The Atlas Wellness 150’s accessories are made of steel with anodized aluminum alloy and polymeric resin combs, and Marcato says they don’t release troublesome dust particles on the pasta. This pasta maker comes in eight colors.
Read our Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 review (opens in new tab)
5. KitchenAid Pasta Roller & Cutter attachment: Best pasta maker attachment
While it’s not strictly a pasta maker in its own right, the KitchenAid Pasta Roller & Cutter attaches to KitchenAid stand mixers (opens in new tab) to allow you to create your very own fresh pasta with ease. The attachment fits on easily and creates six-inch pasta sheets, with eight different thickness settings. This maker does only create spaghetti, fettuccine and flat sheets of pasta though, so if you’re looking for endless varieties already made for you, then you will be better off with a different machine. The added bonus with the KitchenAid pasta maker attachment is that you will already have the stand mixer, so you won’t need to worry about finding ample space for a new appliance.
What to look for in a pasta maker
How it is operated You can choose from two different types of pasta makers. Manual pasta makers are less expensive than their electric counterparts however they are operated by a hand crank. Some models do offer a motorized attachment that turns this for you though. While electric pasta makers require little input from you, apart from feeding the pasta through. While this sounds great, just remember you will have to work at the speed of the machine. Material Try to choose an option that is crafted from stainless steel instead of aluminium. Stainless steel pasta makers might be heavier, but they have great durability and won’t rust. Attachments Essentially, a pasta maker is only as good as the pasta it makes. So make sure your device allows you to create the shape of pasta you crave. Many manual and electric pasta makers will allow you to create thin sheets of pasta and cut them into long flat strips like pappardelle. Some of the best pasta makers also come with die extruders. These let you create round and tubular pasta shapes like spaghetti or fusilli. Extra attachments Your pasta maker might not include all your favorite pasta shapes. But don’t fret. Before you invest, check to see if there are any additional dies or cutters you can add to your collection.
Can you make homemade pasta without a pasta maker?
You can indeed! However making pasta from scratch without a pasta maker by your side is a lot more labour intensive. That’s because a pasta maker essentially takes on all the hard work. If you decide not to invest in a pasta maker, you will have to mix, knead and roll out the dough yourself until it is paper thin using a kitchen utensil like a rolling pin. You will also have to cut and shape the pasta dough you wish to make. It takes a little more patience than using a dedicate pasta machine, but it is still possible.
