The first time I ate homemade pasta, I felt like I was tasting the world in 4K. There’s nothing wrong with the store-bought stuff — Sfoglini’s whimsical Vevusio pasta enchants my dinner plate on the regular — but something shifted in me, on a molecular level, when I first ate pasta that was made from scratch. Few joys in life are as delightful as a Sunday night spent eating pumpkin and nutmeg ravioli with butter-crisped sage, all from the comfort of your couch.
Making pasta from scratch also doesn’t require an elaborate list of ingredients or techniques. As Eater correspondent Jaya Saxena explains, the egg well method beloved by Italians, while visually impressive, can be needlessly fussy; as Saxena writes, plenty of “recipes for French ravioli (a culture no less finicky about tradition) say you can make pasta in a bowl.” A few choice tools can help, however, in your quest to make a hearty lasagna for the next big family function, or colorful ravioli filled with homemade ricotta.
Below, you’ll find a short list of the best kitchen tools for making pasta from scratch, many of which you may already own (think, colanders and thermometers), and a few — including a head-turning Italian pasta machine for less than $100 — that will help you cook like a seasoned tagliolini master.
The best countertop pasta machines for under $100
This clamp-equipped pasta machine
Cookies, bread, ice cream — a powerful stand mixer can be a portal to cooking so many cool things — including pasta — thanks to the right attachments. KitchenAid makes some of the most beloved pasta accessories out there to go with its iconic stand mixer, but you can also find plenty of comparable, budget-friendly options online.
