In regards to quality, the Imperia 150 is a good machine. Made in Italy and it has been on the market for a very long time. Choosing a manual machine, it’s either the Imperia or the Marcato 150. Should you buy the Imperia 150? If you want a high quality machine, but would like to save where possible, the Imperia is a perfectly good choice. Just remember there are less attachments available, but if you don’t care about these attachments, and are just looking for a flat pasta roller then the Imperia is a great, authentic Italian machine that offers solid value for money. We were pleasantly surprised with the results of our tabletop pasta maker test: All 10 units we tried got pretty good scores. This OxGord machine is the least expensive of the bunch, with only minor disadvantages over much pricier machines, so it's a great choice for beginners. If you want to try homemade pasta for the first time, this gadget can get you started for a minimal investment. This only applies to extruder machines, but each model has an ideal batch size. If the mixing chamber is too full or too empty, the dough can get over-kneaded, which makes it harder to push through the dies. You can end up with uneven-textured noodles, or not be able to get the dough through at all. Different brands performed totally differently in this respect during testing—some worked better while completely full, and others liked smaller batches. However, it’s not all sunshine. The several plastic parts that Imperia uses for their Imperia models is something that bothers me. I’ve seen several models online where the plastic parts broke down and it seems the Imperia has a bit of a higher failure rate than Marcato. Nothing huge, but yes, it does keep me awake at night every now and then.

Cutting in half the dough I was sure the dough used with both machines was the same. I just really wanted to see if there were any major differences between the cutters and rollers. Using the rollers Cuisinart 5-Piece Pasta Maker: Cuisinart's tabletop pasta machine is a nice one, with a solid grip on the counter, precise control over the dough, and a wonderfully chewy texture. It had a bit of trouble cutting noodles completely, however, and it's a bit more expensive than the similar Marcato and Imperia models above. Because the ingredients list for pasta is short, the type of flour makes a difference. World Food Pasta Champion Suzanne Clark prefers 00 flour (or "doppio zero" in Italian), which is milled to an extra-fine texture and yields an "exceptionally smooth and silky pasta," Clark says. "I find this is great to use when making ravioli or pastas that will be paired with a light and creamy butter sauce."There are two basic ways a pasta machine can work. The classic tabletop machine uses a pair of rollers to flatten dough into a sheet, then passes the sheet through a cutter to slice it into individual noodles. These can use a hand crank or an electric motor to turn the rollers and cutter. Pasta makers that attach to a KitchenAid or other stand mixer work the same way, using the mixer's onboard motor for power. There are cutters available that can make a variety of sizes of noodle, but a roller-style machine can pretty much only make flat pasta and not more complex shapes like penne or macaroni. Using the machine, it feels quite sturdy on your kitchen counter or table. It weighs around 8 pound, giving it some extra grip on the surface. This popular manual model is from an Italian company that's been crafting pasta machines for generations. It’s made from sleek, chrome-plated steel and is impressively well-built, with a clamp that held it firmly to the table with no wobbling through the full round of testing. The crank handle is removable for easy storage, but it doesn't fall out while you're using it, a problem a lot of other hand-cranked machines have.

As I don’t own the motor attachment for the Imperia, I wasn’t able to test it out. From what I have read theI can tell you that the Imperia attachment won’t fit on your Marcato model. The connections aren’t the same, so to motorise your Marcato you will have to get the proper Marcato motor attachment. Fresh pasta dough doesn't have a very complex recipe: It's made of flour, water, and egg. After mixing the ingredients together, you knead, roll, and shape the dough into whatever noodles you want. Fresh pasta cooks in boiling water just like dried, but it cooks much faster—one to three minutes for fresh versus seven to 10 or even longer for dried. For a heavier sauce like bolognese, Clark suggests semolina, a coarser flour made from a high-protein wheat variety called durum. Semolina-based pasta "tends to hold its shape, and has a heartier, rougher texture that helps sauces cling better to the noodles," Clark says.The Marcato Atlas 150 is equipped with Wellness rollers which are made of anodized aluminum. Anodized aluminum is twice as hard as stainless steel, making the chance of metal particles less likely with rollers made from anodized aluminum. As Marcato has patented this technology, there are no other pasta rollers that have this same feature. If you and your family try to avoid aluminum with cooking altogether, This pasta maker may not have been the best performer in all of our tests, but it was a good performer, and it includes more accessories than others. Its friendly price and included ravioli roller are its best features. If you want to make filled pasta, the CucinaPro gets you an entire pasta-making system for what you might pay for just a ravioli attachment for another machine. The KitchenAid logo is always a sign of quality, but it also raises the price of whatever appliances and accessories it's on. However, there are lots of other brands that make tools compatible with KitchenAid mixers, without that added cost. This Rethone attachment costs less than half of the official KitchenAid equivalent, and it only performed a little worse in our tests. (Keep in mind, though, that it only works with KitchenAid stand mixers, so you'll need one of those to start with.) The Imperia comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, and we are just going to be honest here: this isn’t a very long period of time, especially compared to the 10 year warranty Marcato offers.

Marcato does offer the Atlas 180 model, but none of the 150 attachment will work on this machine. It’s nice for the bigger sheets, but you’ll miss out on using all of the attachments that are designed for the 150. If you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, you might have noticed the little cap on the front that's held on with a screw. This little access port allows you to connect a wide variety of attachments to the motor, which can do anything from grind meat to mill grain into flour. The KitchenAid pasta maker is our favorite one of those because it's so easy and works so well compared to manual models. The new machine has “quite a bit of plastic parts incorporated into the machine that are not present on mine.” Roundup: If we look at the technical specifications of the two pasta machines, the Marcato is the better choice. The Wellness rollers that keep out any harmful metal out of your pasta is a big plus compared to the Imperia, as health is very important in our food. This versatile machine may have made the tastiest pasta of our testing, but the problem is that the whole batch wasn't equally tasty. The Starfrit continually kneads the dough while squeezing it through the die, and the part at the end winds up overkneaded. The beginning of the batch had perfect texture, but the dough got too springy to push through the holes effectively. Where the Philips Plus did better with a larger batch, this machine did better with a smaller one.

Roundup: Both companies know how to manufacture high quality pasta makers and they are going for the long run. This means that both companies will most likely still be around in a few years, so you don’t need to worry about warranty if you would experience a problem with the pasta machines. Comparing the rollers and cutters If you’re planning on making pasta at home for the first time, the Imperia 150 will is a good choice. You’ll be able to make a lot of different pasta shapes, especially when you get creative with the lasagne sheets. Think of ravioli, tortellini and a whole lot more handmade pasta shapes. Both are great models. If both machines were at the same price point, I can’t see a reason to buy the Imperia over the Marcato. But with the Imperia priced lower, it does offer a solid choice as a budget high quality pasta maker. That being said, the motor attachment works great on the Marcato Atlas 150 and my 180 model as well. It has two different speeds to choose from and it allows me to use both of my hands.

Both models offer the same basic functionalities, there aren’t many differences to spot when you put the two side by side.As standard the Imperia Pasta machine will enable you to make many types of pasta, such as spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagne sheets which can in turn be used to make ravioli and cannelloni. Extruders often have at least three dies in the box, most commonly for wide and narrow noodles, and a basic penne-style tube. Some include more than that—our top test model had eight—and you can buy a wide assortment online. There are classic Italian pastas as well as novelty shapes of all kinds. Not every die is compatible with every extruder machine, so read the item description carefully to be sure the one you want will fit in your machine. The Spruce Eats commerce writer Jason Horn updated this story with results from the latest round of Lab testing. He's been writing about food and drinks for nearly 20 years, for publications from Playboy to HGTV to Serious Eats. He loves fresh pasta, but his favorite dough-based Italian food to make at home from scratch is definitely pizza, When it's time to clean up, you have to disassemble a lot of parts and rinse them with soap and water, but the included scraper and brush make that a fairly effortless process. The dies and some other interior pieces are even dishwasher-safe, but we didn't find the dishwasher necessary. It's best to just hand-wash the pieces right after use so you don't have to worry about dough drying in place.