KitchenAid 3-Piece Pasta Roller & Cutter Set Attachment, Silver and KSMMGA Metal Food Grinder Attachment, Silver

Why it's worth it

If a KitchenAid stand mixer already lives on your counter, this set turns it into a pasta roller with eight thickness settings plus spaghetti and fettuccine cutters. The rollers and cutters are stainless steel, and this particular bundle throws in a metal food grinder as well.

The difference here is your hands. On a manual machine, one hand cranks while the other tries to catch a sheet that gets longer and floppier by the second. Hook this set to the mixer's power hub, run it at a low speed, and both hands are free to feed, guide and fold. Cooking for a crowd stops being a two-person job.

Rolled pasta beats extruded pasta on texture, and this gets you there without the cranking. The rollers and cutters are stainless steel with no plastic touching the dough, and eight settings is plenty — most recipes only visit three or four of them anyway. Sheets come out six inches wide, the same as the manual machines, so you're not gaining width. You're gaining muscle.

From our review of 5 pasta makers, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +The difference here is your hands
• +Rolled pasta beats extruded pasta on texture, and this gets you there without the cranking
• +The catch is obvious
• +This listing pairs the pasta set with KitchenAid's metal food grinder, which brings three grinding plates and two sausage…

What to know

• –It still won't mix or knead for you
• –Owner feedback on this bundle is thin compared with the standalone machines, so there's less collective experience to lean on