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Best Pasta Makers 2026: Marcato Atlas vs Imperia vs KitchenAid vs Philips

Fresh pasta is different from dried pasta in a specific way: the texture is softer and more yielding, it takes a third of the time to cook, and it absorbs sauce differently — not better or worse, just different. Making it by hand requires technique; making it with a pasta maker requires only time and the right machine. The five options below span Italian-made hand-crank rollers, a stand mixer attachment, and an automatic extruder — each suited to a different type of cook and a different type of pasta.

Published 2026-05-10

Top picks

  • #1

    Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Maker

    ~$50-80. Italian-made chrome steel manual pasta roller, 150mm width, settings 0-9 (0.6-3mm), includes fettuccine and tagliolini cutters. Widest replacement part availability, most third-party attachment support. Clamp-mount to counter edge required. No soap cleaning — wipe dry only. The benchmark home pasta roller since the 1930s.

    Chrome-plated steel manual roller, 150mm width, settings 0-9 (0.6-3mm), includes fettuccine and tagliolini cutters. Made in Italy since 1930. The reference standard for home pasta rollers — stable, consistent, durable, widely supported by third-party attachments.

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  • #2

    Imperia Pasta Machine Double Cutter

    ~$60-90. Italian manual pasta roller, includes both fettuccine (5mm) and spaghetti (2mm) cutters as standard — more value than Atlas which requires separate cutter purchase. Chrome steel construction. Slightly heavier than Atlas; roller action at thinnest settings requires slightly more crank pressure.

    Manual roller, similar to Atlas, includes both fettuccine (5mm) and spaghetti (2mm) cutters as standard. Italian-made. Best if you want two cutter widths without buying additional attachments.

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  • #3

    KitchenAid Pasta Roller and Cutter Attachment Set

    ~$150-200. Stand mixer attachment converting KitchenAid to motor-driven pasta roller — consistent sheet speed vs variable hand-crank. 152mm width, includes roller/fettuccine/spaghetti cutter. Best only if you already own a KitchenAid stand mixer. Cannot use simultaneously with bowl attachments.

    KitchenAid stand mixer attachment, motor-driven roller for consistent sheet speed, 152mm width, includes roller/fettuccine/spaghetti cutter. Best if you already own a KitchenAid stand mixer — most space-efficient pasta setup.

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  • #4

    Philips Pasta Maker 7000 Automatic

    ~$200-300. Automatic extruder — add flour and liquid, press start, fresh pasta in 15 minutes. No technique required. Makes tubular and shaped pasta (spaghetti, fettuccine, penne, lasagna) that rollers cannot. Rougher extruded texture holds sauce better than smooth roller pasta. Weakness: cleanup intensive (disassemble within 30 min); louder than manual rollers.

    Automatic extruder — mix and extrude in 15 minutes, no technique required. Makes tubular and shaped pasta that rollers cannot produce. Best for users who want homemade pasta without the hand-rolling process and weeknight convenience.

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  • #5

    Ronco Pasta Maker Automatic

    ~$80-120. Budget automatic pasta extruder — fewer die options than Philips, lower construction quality, lower price. Adequate for occasional use. Good entry point for trying automatic pasta making before committing to the Philips investment. Pasta quality and machine durability are below premium options.

    Budget automatic pasta maker — simpler than the Philips, fewer die options, lower price. Adequate for users who want to try automatic pasta making without the full Philips investment. Pasta quality and durability are lower than premium options.

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Roller machines vs extruder machines: the fundamental split

Pasta makers fall into two categories that are not interchangeable. Roller machines (Marcato Atlas, Imperia, KitchenAid attachment) roll dough into thin sheets, which you can then cut into fettuccine, tagliatelle, lasagna sheets, or stuff for ravioli. The resulting pasta is smooth, silky, and very close to what you find at a pasta shop. The technique requires making dough first, letting it rest, then feeding it through progressively thinner settings — a 30-45 minute process.

Extruder machines (Philips Pasta Maker 7000, Ronco) push dough through shaped dies to produce hollow shapes like rigatoni, penne, and fusilli — forms that a roller cannot make. The texture is different from roller pasta: extruded pasta is slightly rougher on the surface, which actually holds sauce better but doesn't have the silky sheet texture of rolled pasta. The Philips Pasta Maker mixes and extrudes in one machine — add flour and liquid, press a button, receive pasta in 15 minutes. The trade-off is that the extruded pasta lacks the specific texture of hand-rolled or roller-machine pasta.

Choosing between the two depends on what pasta you want to make. For tagliatelle, fettuccine, pappardelle, lasagna, and stuffed pastas: a roller machine. For rigatoni, penne, spaghetti through a die, and other tubular or short shapes: an extruder. Many pasta enthusiasts own one of each. If you only own a roller and want ribbed rigatoni, you can't make it. If you only own an extruder and want silky fresh tagliatelle, the texture will be different from what you're imagining.

The Italian benchmark: Marcato Atlas 150

The Marcato Atlas 150 is the most widely used pasta maker in home kitchens globally, with a production history going back to 1930 in Campodarsego, Italy. The mechanism is entirely manual — a hand crank turns steel rollers that the dough passes through. The width setting goes from 0 (widest, 3mm gap) to 9 (thinnest, 0.6mm gap), giving precise control over pasta thickness. At setting 6-7 (about 1mm), the pasta is correct for tagliatelle and fettuccine. At setting 8-9, the pasta is thin enough for ravioli without the stuffing tearing through.

The 150mm roller width is the standard home pasta width — wide enough to produce a sheet that makes full-size lasagna sections. The Atlas 150 comes with a fettuccine and tagliolini cutter; additional cutters (spaghetti, pappardelle, ravioli) are available separately. The machine is mounted to the counter edge with a clamp — it cannot be freestanding and requires a suitable counter edge, which most kitchen islands provide. Stability under hand-crank pressure is excellent; the clamp mechanism is tight.

The build is all chrome-plated steel. It will not rust in normal kitchen conditions, but it should not be submerged in water. Cleaning is done by wiping flour residue from the rollers with a dry cloth and a wooden skewer for crevices — the rollers absorb moisture if washed, which affects the chrome plating over time. After years of use the rollers remain smooth, which matters: scratched or pitted rollers tear fresh dough.

The Italian alternative: Imperia double-cutter machine

The Imperia Pasta Machine is the other major Italian contender, also produced for decades and also fully manual. The primary functional difference from the Marcato Atlas is the dual-cutter attachment included in the base configuration — both fettuccine (5mm) and spaghetti (2mm) cutters come with the machine, rather than requiring separate purchase. For someone who wants both pasta widths without buying attachments, the Imperia is the better deal.

The roller adjustment mechanism is slightly different between the Atlas and Imperia: Atlas uses a knob with numbered settings; Imperia uses a similar knob but the feel of the roller gap is slightly different between manufacturers. Neither is objectively better — it is a matter of which mechanism you find more intuitive. Both machines produce equivalent pasta at equivalent settings.

The Imperia is slightly heavier than the Atlas — a minor consideration for storage — and has been noted in long-term user reviews to have marginally less smooth roller action at the thinnest settings, requiring slightly more cranking pressure. For most home use this is not a meaningful difference. Both machines are made for regular use and will outlast an average kitchen.

KitchenAid attachment: the stand mixer integration

The KitchenAid Pasta Roller and Cutter Attachment set converts a KitchenAid stand mixer into a pasta rolling machine. The power drive port on the stand mixer turns the rollers at a consistent motor-driven speed, which is genuinely different from hand-cranking: the pasta feeds through at a regulated pace rather than the variable speed of manual cranking, which can produce more consistent sheet thickness across the full length of the sheet.

The KitchenAid attachment set comes with a roller, fettuccine cutter, and spaghetti cutter. Additional cutters (lasagna, angel hair, linguine) are available. The attachment quality matches the Atlas/Imperia standard — steel rollers, 6-inch width (152mm). The main advantages are consistency of motor drive and the workflow of one countertop appliance rather than a separate machine. If you already own a KitchenAid, this is the most space-efficient pasta-making addition.

The main limitation is that you cannot use the pasta attachment and a bowl attachment simultaneously — the pasta roller replaces the bowl hub. And if you don't already own a KitchenAid, buying one to use the pasta attachment is not cost-effective. The stand mixer costs $350-500; the pasta attachment adds $150-200. For pasta-making alone, the Atlas or Imperia at $50-80 is a better value. The KitchenAid attachment is the right choice only if you already own the mixer.

Philips Pasta Maker 7000: the automatic extruder

The Philips Pasta Maker 7000 takes a completely different approach: add flour and liquid, select a die shape, press start. In 15 minutes you have pasta ready to cook. No dough resting, no hand-rolling, no technique required. The machine mixes, kneads, and extrudes automatically. For weeknight cooking when you want homemade pasta without the process, the Philips is the fastest path from dry ingredients to finished pasta.

The pasta shapes available depend on the die set. The Philips Pasta Maker 7000 comes with dies for spaghetti, fettuccine, penne, and lasagna. Additional die sets are available. The pasta produced by extrusion has a rougher surface texture than roller-produced pasta — this is not a defect, it is a characteristic of the extrusion method. Rough-surface pasta holds sauce better than smooth; Neapolitan tomato sauces cling to extruded pasta more effectively than to silky hand-rolled pasta.

The limitations are cleanup and noise. The extruder mechanism requires disassembly and washing after each use — the dies and mixing bowl need to be cleaned before pasta dough dries in them, which happens within 30 minutes. The machine is also louder than a hand-crank roller. At $200-300, it costs significantly more than a manual roller. The value case for the Philips is the time savings and the ability to make tubular shapes that rollers cannot produce.

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Frequently asked questions

What flour do you use for fresh pasta?
Traditional Italian fresh pasta uses 00 flour (doppio zero), which is a finely milled soft wheat flour with lower protein content than bread flour. The low protein content produces a tender, silky texture. In markets where 00 flour is unavailable or expensive, all-purpose flour produces acceptable results — the texture is slightly chewier but still recognizably fresh pasta. For egg-based pasta (pasta all'uovo), the standard ratio is 100g flour to 1 large egg, mixed to a firm dough and rested 30 minutes before rolling. Do not skip the rest — unrested dough tears and springs back during rolling. Semolina flour is used for dried pasta shapes but can be added in small amounts (up to 30%) to fresh pasta for a more textured result.
How thick should fresh pasta be?
Depends on the shape. Tagliatelle and fettuccine: Atlas setting 5-6 (approximately 1-1.5mm). Pappardelle: setting 4-5 (slightly thicker, as the wide strip needs body to hold its shape). Ravioli pasta: setting 8-9 (0.6-0.8mm — thin enough that doubled over stuffing doesn't create an overly thick edge). Lasagna sheets: setting 5-6. When in doubt, go thinner than you think is necessary — fresh pasta puffs slightly as it cooks and absorbs sauce, so a sheet that looks translucently thin before cooking will be the right thickness after cooking. The most common home pasta-making mistake is rolling too thick.
Can you make pasta without a machine?
Yes, with a rolling pin and patience. The technique is: mix dough, rest 30 minutes covered, then roll on a lightly floured surface with a wooden rolling pin to a uniform thin sheet, rotating the dough 90 degrees every few passes. The result can be good but the consistency is harder to achieve without practice — the sheet tends to be thicker in the center and thinner at the edges. A pasta machine is worthwhile if you make fresh pasta more than a few times a year, because the roller mechanism produces consistently even sheets with minimal technique. The Atlas 150 at $50-80 pays for itself in a few cooking sessions relative to restaurant pasta prices.