pasta | Your Ultimate Kitchen

Hand Crank Pasta Makers

Some people want to be old school and crank out their pasta by hand. I must warn you that this is a pretty daunting task, but if you’re looking for a good workout, you won’t be disappointed! It’s also helpful to have a friend, but I think the same would be true with an electric one also.

Atlas pasta maker with hand cutting tool

So these machines all basically look the same. The biggest difference is going to be quality, which will obviously be higher with one made in Italy. Marcato Atlas and Imperia (owned by Cucina Pro) are both brands that are made in Italy. The Atlas machine is pretty widely distributed, and you can also find different attachments for it, like a ravioli maker or a motor. 😉 Roma is a less expensive brand made in China.

Electric Pasta Makers

There are many brands of electric pasta makers on the market, none of which I have any personal experience with using or selling. The good news, however, is that you can utilize the information I do know about the Kitchen Aid pasta attachments and make an educated decision, as by looking at them you can deduce what style of pasta maker they are – a rolling/cutting system, or an extruder.

A true rolling and cutting system is more like the traditional hand crank pasta maker. A pasta extruder is figuratively pushing a ball of pasta dough through shaped holes in a disc like Play-Doh. The first method is going to be the best way to do it, but with the extruder method you can get shaped noodles like macaroni.

Kitchen Aid Attachments

Roller – This is the basic pasta roller to flatten out your dough for lasagna noodles or to cut into noodles after rolling it out.

Cutters – Kitchen Aid sells a variety of different size pasta cutters for use after rolling your pasta dough out. Please note that if you buy cutters individually you will also need to purchase a roller.

**Angel Hair Cutter – All capellini noodles, like spaghetti
Thick Noodle Cutter – Lasagnette noodles like fettuccine or egg noodles

Kitchen Aid roller and cutter set (KPRA)

**I get very annoyed that they use all of their pasta terms so interchangeably. It makes it extremely difficult for both employees in stores as well as the end consumers to know exactly what they need. I have seen sets other than these available to order in retail stores, as well, so don’t believe everything you see on the Kitchen Aid website to be all there is!

Thin=Capellini=Spaghetti=Angel Hair
Thick=Lasagnette=Fettuccine=Egg Noodles

Sets – There are a few different sets you can buy, most of which include a roller and some combination of cutters. There is one set that doesn’t include the roller, so beware if you don’t already have one.

Pasta Excellence Set – Includes the pasta roller, ravioli maker, and capellini, lasagnette, fettuccine, and spaghetti cutters
Pasta Roller & Cutter Set – Includes the pasta roller, fettuccine and spaghetti cutters
Pasta Cutter Set – **NO ROLLER** Includes lasagnette (fettuccine & egg noodles) and capellini cutters (spaghetti & angel hair)

Food Grinder/Pasta Plates – I believe that with the advent of the Pasta Extruder that Kitchen Aid has discontinued production on the pasta plate set that you used to be able to buy to go with your Food Grinder attachment. It was a set of 5 discs with different noodle shapes for about $30.

Kitchen Aid Food Grinder and Pasta Plates

Gourmet Pasta Press – This is a big step above the Pasta Plates you can get for the Food Grinder attachment. There are 6 pasta plates, and you can actually make spaghetti and bucatini pastas, along with your short noodles. It also has a conveniently attached storage piece for the plates you aren’t utilizing.

Ravioli Attachment – This is a large attachment that will really help you make a lot of ravioli at once. It seems like this would be easier to do with a friend’s assistance!

Hand Tools & Accessories for Pasta Making

Pasta Cutting Hand Tool – There are a few different pasta cutters you can find to use for hand-cutting your lasagna noodles. Typically it will look like a small pizza cutter, with either one straight blade, or else also have a second blade that is crimped.

Ravioli Trays – There are many varieties of ravioli trays for making them by hand with your freshly made noodles. Generally the base piece will be plastic and the piece that shapes and cuts them is metal.

Ravioli Cutter – A metal crimping wheel to make ‘free-form’ ravioli shapes however your heart desires!

Ravioli Stamps – A ravioli stamp is a simpler version of a ravioli tray, and it is figuratively a circle or square with a handle so you can stamp out individual raviolis.

Pasta Drying Racks – If you’re not eating your pasta right away, you’re probably going to want to dry it to store for later use. You can find basic wooden racks like this one from Atlas. Atlas and Kitchen Aid both make a plastic rack with rotating arms.

Power hub

Kitchen Aid stand mixer attachments can be a great way to add on to your purchase with other small electrics you might want to add to your kitchen without taking up the full space of buying it as a separate unit. With the exception of the ice cream maker attachment, these all go on the power hub on the front of your Kitchen Aid mixer and work by turning the mixer on, just like you were using the mixer. I don’t think any of the attachment pieces are dishwasher safe, but always check the label, of course!

Here’s a video of the Food Grinder in action – grinding some turkey! You can see how the lower piece also moves when you are using the power hub.

Food Grinder – Most people think of this for just grinding meats (and adding-on the sausage stuffer to make sausages!), but it’s also great for making salsa, guacamole, hiding veggies in sauces for picky eaters, grating hard cheeses, or making bread crumbs! Includes two different sized discs.

Food Grinder parts

**Food grinder user tip! The weird shaped handle on the pusher piece is because it doubles as a wrench for the front piece if you are having trouble unscrewing it!

Voila! See how the grooves fit?!

**Another user tip! I admit to forgetting this myself, but a lot of folks don’t realize the masticating piece pops out for easier cleaning. It’s separate in the photo above, but to emphasize, just push on the metal piece that connects to the power hub to pop it out!

Pop me out & clean!

Pasta Plates – You must have the Food Grinder attachment in order to utilize these pasta plates, but the set includes 5 different discs for various short noodle and macaroni shapes. I’m not sure if they are still selling these as they are not on Kitchen Aid’s website, but they were around $30.

Sausage Stuffer – You must have the Food Grinder attachment in order to utilize the sausage stuffer attachment, but it includes two different sized tubes for stuffing sausage casings.

The Sausage Stuffer is the cone sticking out of
the front of the Food Grinder that you wrap the casing around and the ground meat pushes into it!

Pasta Making Attachments – I believe all of these come with a little brush to help brush out any dry pieces of noodle that might have gotten caught in them. They are all hand wash only.

Pasta attachment cleaning brush

Pasta Roller – This attachment is for rolling out sheets of pasta; you would essentially get a lasagna noodle out if it and require cutters to make anything else. Has a knob on the side where you can adjust the thickness of the pasta sheets you’re creating.

Pasta Roller

**Angel Hair Cutter – All capellini noodles, like spaghetti

Thick Noodle Cutter – Lasagnette noodles like fettuccine or egg noodles

**I get very annoyed that they use all of their pasta terms so interchangeably on the sets. There are only It makes it extremely difficult for both employees in stores as well as the end consumers to know exactly what they need. These two cutters individually are the ones in the Pasta Cutter Set (below) and are apparently a little more versatile with the sizes of noodles you can make.

Thin=Capellini=Spaghetti=Angel Hair

Thick=Lasagnette=Fettuccine=Egg Noodles

Pasta Sets:

Pasta Excellence Set – Includes the pasta roller, ravioli maker, and capellini, lasagnette, fettuccine, and spaghetti cutters. It is essentially the next two sets listed below combined, plus the ravioli maker.

Pasta Excellence Set

Pasta Roller & Cutter Set – Includes the pasta roller, fettuccine and spaghetti cutters. *The difference I’m seeing is that these aren’t wide enough to be egg noodles or thin enough to be angel hair noodles like the set below.

I have the Pasta Roller & Cutter set and these are the cutters.
It would seem this is the best deal if you don’t care about
making extra thin or thick noodles!

Pasta Cutter Set – **NO ROLLER** Includes lasagnette (fettuccine & egg noodles) and capellini cutters (spaghetti & angel hair)

[I personally think the metal roller and cutters are a great investment if you are serious about making pasta at home. Have you ever used a manual crank pasta machine? They are really hard to crank (they sell a $100 motor for the Atlas brand one because it’s so hard!), and it’s almost like you have to have two people to do it, one person to crank and one to pull the sheet of pasta forward as they are cranking it! The pasta plates that go with the Food Grinder and the Gourmet Pasta Press are pasta extruders – this means they work like a Play-Doh toy, pushing the pasta noodles out through different shaped plastic holes to get their shape.]

Ravioli Maker

Gourmet Pasta Press – This is a big step above the pasta plates you can get for the Food Grinder attachment. There are 6 pasta plates, and you can actually make spaghetti and bucatini pastas, along with your short noodles. It also has a conveniently attached storage piece for the plates you aren’t utilizing.

Gourmet Pasta Press

Ravioli Maker – Feed pasta sheets through either side of the machine and dump whatever you’re stuffing into the middle and it crimps and seals the raviolis for you!

Ravioli Maker in action!

Pasta Drying Rack – You don’t need to specifically buy Kitchen Aid’s drying rack for your pasta, but if you can’t find another brand, why not? Theirs, like Atlas’ is plastic and the arms rotate around for easier drying and storage purposes.

Fruit/Vegetable Strainer Set – Strain and puree fruits and vegetables just like you would with a manual food mill. Great for baby food and tomato sauce, and includes a strainer cone to keep any peels out.

Fruit & Vegetable Strainer

Food Tray – Larger food tray attachment to add on to the Food Grinder for holding more at once.

Slicer/Shredder – This is a pretty cool set if you don’t have a food processor already. It comes with 2 different sized shredding cones, and 2 different sized slicing cones.

Slicer/Shredder

Grain Mill – This all-metal mill will help you make homemade flours and grind your own oats, etc. I recall a customer once telling me that it was difficult to find an electric mill that didn’t have any plastic pieces and she was very happy to find the Kitchen Aid one, but I’m not sure how true this is!

Grain Mill

Citrus Juicer – This works just like any other electric citrus juicer would – the center piece has two sizes for different sizes of citrus, and when you turn the machine on the center piece spins while you hold the piece of fruit up to it and it juices it for you. There’s a little strainer piece that will help to catch any seeds or large pieces of pulp from falling into whatever receptacle you’ve chosen for the juice to fall into.

Citrus Juicer

Ice Cream Maker – This works just like most of the electric ice cream makers you see on the market these days. You have to freeze the bowl for several hours before you can make the ice cream and there is a paddle attachment that also comes with it to help churn the ice cream properly when you turn the machine on. This is the only attachment that doesn’t go on the power hub – you use it like you were using the mixer normally, just with a different paddle and bowl!

Ice Cream Maker

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