World Pasta Day 2022: Everything you need to make nonna-worthy dishes at home

From ravioli kits to cookbooks, create restaurant-quality dishes in your kitchen

Making it yourself doesn’t need to be difficult with these kitchen essentials (The Independent)

Undeniably, we’re a nation of pasta lovers, and have been for decades. And, clearly so is the rest of the world, so much so that 25 October is World Pasta Day, an annual event celebrated since its conception by the World Pasta Congress in 1995.

It’s focus is to promote the eating of pasta (we’re already convinced) and its cultural importance not only to Italy, but to the rest of us too. Even though pasta is already a regular in our kitchens, its absolutely the already made version, whether that’s fresh or dry. But it’s not that hard to make it yourself. 

If you’re new or out of practice with your kitchen skills, we’ve selected some of IndyBest’s favourite kitchen essentials to help you create restaurant-quality dishes.

To start you off, great recipe books will help pave the way to new and exciting dishes, while perfecting your linguini and ravioli can come down to finding the right pasta maker for your culinary arsenal. Home chefs eager to make their own pesto will find hand blenders especially helpful too.

So whether you’re a fan of ravioli, gnocchi, pappardelle, tagliatelle or any other type of pasta, read on for our guide to making nonna-worthy dishes at home.

Pasta makers

If you can’t make it to your favourite pasta restaurant, bring Italy into your kitchen by treating yourself to a pasta maker.

It’s the most authentic way to enjoy the carby dish and recreate the pasta shapes you typically enjoy at an eatery.

We put a number of pasta makers to the test in our round-up, to find the best and the KitchenAid 5KSMPRA food mixer attachment pasta maker (£169, Argos.co.uk) walked away with the top spot.

Put your Italian chef hat on and cook up tagliatelle, lasagne sheets and more with a pasta machine (The Independent)

As a set of attachments for any KitchenAid mixer, if you already own the standing mixer, it’s a simple way to transform the popular appliance. Read our full review of the Kitchenaid in our guide to the best stand mixers here.

The pasta attatchment comes with a pasta roller, a spaghetti cutter and a fettuccine cutter while the Kitchenaid itself turns the rollers for you. Our reviewer praised the stand for having perfect height “for allowing a good quantity of pasta to flow through without getting bunched at the bottom.”

As far as kitchen appliances go, there’s no denying the Kitchenaid stand mixer and pasta attatchemnt are quite an investment – but it’s a win-win if you already have the Kitchenaid in your culinary arsenal, our tester said, providing “all the satisfaction of making your own fresh dough, with far less of the fuss.”

(ProCook)

The perfect choice for smaller kitchens, the ProCook pasta maker (£35, Procook.co.uk) offers an affordable alternative with plenty of functionality – from lasagne to linguini. Crowning it the best for compact spaces, our tester said “the quality of fresh pasta sheet it produces is more than sufficient for anything else you wish to make, such as pappardelle or ravioli.”

If ravioli is one of your favourite dishes, our reviewer was intruiged by the bespoke ravioli attatchment on the Marcato atlas 150 pasta maker (£65, Boroughkitchen.com) – otherwise known as the Ferrari of pasta machines which “simultaneously fills and seals sheets of the stuffed pasta.”

(Marcato)

Included are three pasta cutters for fettuccine, tagliolini, and lasagna – plus the option to add an electric motor if you aren’t taken by the idea of a hand crank.

Kitchen appliances

For making your own pesto from scratch, tomato and basil topping or cheesy carbonara, you’ll need a few tools at your disposal to master a pasta sauce. Often its a case of blitzing ingredients together, so ensure you have the smoothly blended vegetables, spices and seasoning with a handheld blender.

In our guide to the best hand blenders, we loved this Braun multiquick 5 (£109, Currys.co.uk) which has separate attachments that allow you to blend, mash, whisk and chop.

(Braun)

Helpfully, our tester found that all of these can be easily clicked into place and removed. Brownie points were awarded for its powerful 1,000W motor too, which gave this model “some real oomph”. Plus, you can up the ante with the adjustables speed and boost button, too.

For a more robust piece of equipment, consider investing in a food processor like this KitchenAid 1.7l food processor (£149, Kitchenaid.co.uk).

(KitchenAid)

Awarded the accolade of best buy in our round-up of the best food processors, our writer said it is both unobtrusive and very quiet. They also noted how the multi-tasking processor “chopped, pureed, mixed and sliced with complete ease and earned top marks for kneading and cake mixing.”

There are five colourways to choose from, ranging from almond creme to matte black, while our tester aprreciated the pulse function and two different speed levels.

Cookbooks

While the appeal of pasta often lies in its simplicity, get it wrong and you can be left with a mushy, bland mess.

To avoid any said dissapointments, go to those who know best; Pasta Grannies: The secrets of Italy's best home cooks by Vicky Bennison (£16.75, Amazon.co.uk) is a treasure trove of more than 80 recipes, so you can whip up dishes just like Italian nonnas do.

(Amazon)

Having spent a lifetime cooking pasta, no one knows their stuff like these women, who share their life stories alongside instructions on how to make anything from gnocchi to pici.

Serving essentials

If you’re cooking for guests, make it extra special with this classic stoneware dinnerset from Mason Cash.

(IndyBest)

Crowned our favourite set in guide to the best plate sets, as they were “smooth to the touch, not too heavy and like all Mason Cash’s dinnerware, safe for the microwave, dishwasher and freezer.”

For introducing a pop of colour to your dinnertable, we also loved these seeds dinner plateas from Pols Potten (£90, Amara.com).

These colourful plates will make a stylish and eye-catching addition to your kitchen (Anthropologie)

They brought a “colourful, craft driven aesthetic to the dining table” found our reviewer. Matte-glazed and hand painted with a sunflower seed motif, they’ll transport you to fond memories of your favourite restaurant in the summer.

Voucher codes

For discounts on food and drink, try the links below:

• Just East discount codes
• BrewDog discount codes
• Beer Hawk discount codes

Looking to challenge your inner chef? Read our round-up of the best recipe boxes and food delivery subscriptions for all the family