Stand Mixer for making pasta dough - which one?

I have become adept at making pasta dough by hand, but would probably make it more often if I had some mechanical help to both speed up the process and make it less messy. Batches of pasta dough can be divided up and frozen for quick weeknight meals, and I have a wonderful pasta machine to turn dough into pasta. I need advice on making dough more easily.

I have seen videos of both food processors and stand mixers being used successfully to make pasta dough. For me a stand mixer would be a far more useful addition to my home kitchen than a food processor.

The three models I have been considering are the Ankarsrum Assistent, Hobart n50, and the KitcheAid 8QT pro/commercial stand mixers.

Cost is a factor but not the deciding one - quality, functionality, and longevity are. The Ankarsrum and KA are about the same price, and the Hobart 2-3 times more. Ankasrum still manufactures everything in Sweden - including their own motors - but though the Hobart and KA are made (or assembled?) in the US, I don’t know where their motors come from and so they may not be today what they once were…

So, would you recommend a stand mixer for making pasta dough, and if so, which one of these would you recommend (or not)?

Thank-you!

I used a Kitchenaid for years, and was reasonably happy with it. Two years ago I switched to the Ankarsrum Assistent, and I think it does a much better job. It’s larger capacity allows me to make a dough with two kilos of flour at once. I think that the Assistent can handle three kilos of flour, but my oven cannot. I also highly recommend Jeff Varasano’s “wet kneading” method: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm. He, of course, uses it for pizza dough, but I find that it produces a better bread dough in general. By the way, Electrolux DLX is another name for the Assistent.

Are you planning on getting an extruder attachment too? The only one I’ve tasted are from a Kitchen-Aid pasta extruder, which I think costs around $200. A friend told me it’s poorly constructed, and I found the pasta too thick, and not as tasty as a bronze-die cut one from a quality brand.

I already have a very good pasta machine - a commercial hand-cranked one: Imperial Restaurant.

Thank-you - the Ankarsrum sounds like a work horse!

The only thing you have to learn is how far to set the beater from the revolving bowl. The fuller the bowl, the further away you set the beater. Otherwise the dough crawls up and makes a mess. You can find some videos on youtube.
I didn’t get any ot the attachments, but a friend did, and I think she likes them.b

Thanks - I have watched some videos and understand that it is a completely different design from KA. The Ankarsrum seems to be universally loved by its owners, whereas KA suffers from rampant quality control and reliability issues. I would choose an electric motor made in Sweden any day over one made in the PRC, where I assume all the KA motors are made before stand mixers are “Assembled in the USA” with PRC made parts.
I even came across a reference to a new Hobart n50 owner who said the box his unit came in said “Assembled in the USA”, suggesting that the lower-end Hobart unit is no longer fully US made. And given that it costs between $2-3K, it is a disappointment to learn that. Maybe my information is wrong and maybe the n50 is robust legacy piece, but who knows…
The Ankarsrum is entirely made in Sweden, as it has been since 1940 - and that includes the plastic parts as well apparently.
So, from a quality and performance standpoint for mixing dough, the Ankarsrum seems to be the way to go…

I toyed with the idea of getting the N50 for a time, but then decided against it for reasons of cost, weight, and usability. I don’t remember the details. It may have been onlne comment, or perhaps I found a manual online. In any case there was some complication in using it that I preferred to avoid.

I cannot find a Hobart N50 in-stock in Canada, and for most dealers it is a special order item. I just received a quote for the N50 from a local retailer, and after a discount it costs exactly 4.5 times what an Ankarsrum costs. Wow! Now that is hard to justify!

The Hobart N50 is suitable for industrial use. Many hours a day, every day. Most of us don’t need that.

Webstaurant Store has $200 off on the Hobart if that helps any. I’m seriously craving one.

Hmm US2.2k with free shipping, but that still costs 4x what an Ankarsrum costs - and an Ankarsrum is considered an expensive stand mixer. Can one justify purchasing a Hobart for occasional home use when it is actually a commercial workhorse that is perhaps not the best choice for a more domestic application?

Thank-you, I have decided to order the Ankarsrum Assistant.

I’ll be interested to hear how you like it.

The Ankarsrum Assistant arrived in my kitchen, and I have made pasta dough in the metal bowl using the roller, and it worked very well. This was much easier and less messy than doing it by hand from scratch.

My daughter made a cake using the plastic bowl and beaters, and said she liked it (she has used a KA stand mixer for years).

Thanks to all for your input and advice!

Congratulations!

What pasta dough recipe did you use in it? My lovely husband got me an ankarsrum recently and it did a wonderful job mixing the dough, although I haven’t rolled it out yet, it’s the recipe I always use -which is one large egg per 100 g of flour which consists of 50g Tipo 00 Antimo Caputo and 50g semolina. I do not add salt to my dough, as I heavily salt the cooking water. I was using a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer, But it stresses and smokes over two loaves of bread and I just can’t have that weak of a mixer. I am really angry with myself for just trusting a name without researching, I will not do that again as I now know things aren’t all made the way they used to be.

Hi Sarah,

I only use the stand mixer for larger batches of say 400-600g or more of flour, and it works beautifully. For a main course of pasta for 6 people I use 500g flour.

I use a different ratio of 75g 00 + 25g semolina per 1 egg. For 200g batches I do it by hand as I learned from Gennaro, using the same recipe:

Enjoy!

Costco has a 6qt kitchenaid mixer with a bit more power. It still doesn’t give me a lot of confidence but at least they have a good “lifetime” return policy.

At my Costco (Marlboro, NJ) that 6 Qt mixer is $249.00. That’s a steal.