22 Italian Cooking Tools and Gadgets You Need in Your Life
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Leave friends, family, and dinner guests spellbound by your favorite homemade dishes with the help of these brilliant Italian cooking tools and gadgets, giving you the power to elevate your Italian food to whole new levels of deliciousness.
Whether achieving a flawlessly uniform thickness on your spaghetti or lacing your pizza bases with subtle smoky tones, the difference between good and truly great Italian food is all in the fine details.
These tools, gadgets, and equipment can empower you to hone your craft and understanding of Italian food, and conjure up dishes that leave a lasting impression on everyone. Your journey into the true art of Italian cooking starts here!
Italian Cooking Tools and Gadgets
Pasta Tools and Gadgets
1. Pasta Machine
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with using store-bought pasta for your Italian feast, especially if you’re pressed for time. But making pasta is like many foods in the kitchen: once you’ve made your own for the first time, you never want to go back to store-bought.
Overcome that fabled fear of ‘pasta making is hard’ and give yourself a helping hand with a gorgeous chrome pasta machine, like this one.
Your hard graft can go into mixing the dough, and then you can use the roller to roll out smooth pasta sheets for fettuccine, lasagne, and tagliolini. You can also buy a dozen pasta-cutting accessories compatible with this machine to make bigoli, capellini, reginette, and more.
Trust me when I say the taste of your own pasta, compared to store-bought, just isn’t comparable!
2. Chitarra Pasta Cutter
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Once you’ve rolled out your pasta dough, if you want to serve up some rustic homemade strand pasta, a traditional chitarra pasta cutter like this one is all you need to make capellini or fettuccini pasta in seconds.
Italians have been making pasta with a chitarra in the rural countryside for generations. Simply tighten the strings, lay your pasta dough over them, and use a rolling pin to press the dough into the blades, cutting your strand pasta.
Made from natural wood, there’s just something magical about making pasta like this at home. Close your eyes, take in the aroma, and transport yourself to a Tuscan farmhouse in the 1800s.
3. Pasta Rolling Pin
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You’ll quickly find that large, conventional rolling pins just can’t roll out pasta dough into razor-thin uniform sheets. This leaves you with thick, uneven pasta that makes your dishes way too hearty and starchy, and takes away from the flavors of the sauces and toppings.
If you’re serious about making your own pasta, get yourself a long rolling pin, like this one, that is designed to roll pasta dough into thin, uniform sheets.
You will instantly be able to tell the difference once the pasta has cooked. Great pasta provides the foundation on which the sauces, toppings, and ingredients can thrive. It should complement them, not overpower the dish with its starchiness and texture.
4. Pasta Drying Rack
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Pasta drying racks, like this one, have been a staple in Italian households for generations. Not only does a pasta drying rack provide a place to hang and store your strand and sheet pasta but it also gives the pasta the time it needs to dry, which is integral to keeping its shape.
Pasta-making is an art, and details matter when it comes to executing breathtakingly delicious pasta. With a drying rack, you can prepare your pasta before your guests arrive, so that when it’s time to cook, your pasta is in the ideal condition to go into the pot.
5. Pasta Cutter
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Create gorgeous and decadent ravioli and pasta with a professional handheld pasta cutter set, like this one. You can cut pasta sheets with either the smooth wheel, for a flawlessly curved ravioli seal, or the festooned (ridged) wheel, to create ravioli with a beautiful ridged edge.
You can also use these cutting wheels for other types of pasta and pastries. Complete with a natural wood handle for precision cutting, these pasta cutters are simple to use and help you make pasta that looks as great as it tastes.
6. Ravioli Tablet
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If cutting the pasta yourself freehand seems a little daunting, consider a ravioli tablet to give you millimeter-perfect precision on your ravioli parcels.
Or, if you want a little more fun and freedom, a ravioli cutter stamp, like this one, is ideal if you have a large sheet of pasta dough rolled out.
7. Pasta Pot with Built-in Colander
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When it’s time to drain your pasta, if dropping the pasta into a colander, draining it, then tipping the pasta back into the pan has always felt like a hassle, this is the tool for you.
Once your pasta is ready, simply tip the stainless pot over the sink with the lid on, and the perforated section of the lid acts as your built-in colander. It’s simple, time-saving, and helps create space in the sink.
But if draining the pasta has always been part of the therapeutic cooking process for you, get yourself a sturdy steel colander set like this one, which is built to handle the hefty weight of a large pot of pasta.
Pizza Tools and Gadgets
8. Pizza Cooking Stone and Peel
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Get that perfect rustic pizza crust, both with homemade and store-bought pizza, by cooking them on a natural stone, as is done in pizzerias across Italy.
Cooking stones absorb moisture and distribute the heat evenly, giving you a mouthwateringly crisp and evenly cooked pizza. Naturally, few of us have a stone pizzeria oven at home, so you can use the stone on the stovetop, grill, or in the oven, and use the peel to slide the pizza, or meat or fish, out once cooked.
9. Pizza Cutter
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Tired of hacking your way through a delicious pizza straight out of the oven, and pulling the toppings all over the place?
Be sure to have a classic Italian pizza cutter for your next pizza night, so you can cut through crust and toppings with precision and little-to-no mess. From there, everyone can pull a clean, evenly cut slice from the pizza board and dig in!
Other Food Gadgets and Tools
10. Gnocchi Board
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Succumb to the romance of some age-old Italian pasta-making techniques, and try your hand at making gnocchi and a rare Italian pasta called garganelli with the help of this beautifully crafted board.
It may take a little practice, but after you have rolled some traditional garganelli pasta and cooked it for friends and family, everyone, including yourself, will be thankful for your effort!
11. Mezzaluna
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Once you’ve given chopping vegetables, herbs, meats, dough, and whatever else needs slicing a go with a sharp mezzaluna knife, you’ll never want to go back to the conventional way of cutting with a knife.
This ingenious cutting blade, fit for all types of foods and cuisines, can drastically reduce your time spent chopping and slicing.
12. Mortar and Pestle
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While blending pesto, sauces, spices, and condiments in a food processor may be quicker, there is just something unique and magical about doing it the old-fashioned way with a mortar and pestle.
With this elegant marble mortar and beechwood pestle, you can follow in the footsteps of generations of Genoese people and prepare pesto the way they have done for hundreds of years.
Pesto is also the tip of the iceberg. Whether crushing biscuits for a delicious cake base or grinding up spices and seeds for a sauce, there’s no end to the delights you can bring to life with a classic Italian mortar and pestle.
13. Risotto Spoon
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As we’ve touched up a few times in the rundown, the difference between good and truly great Italian cooking really is in the details.
Making risotto with a risotto spoon, like this one, is a prime example of this. The hole in the spoon’s bowl allows for some of the rice to pass through as you stir, making for a smoother motion as you break up fewer grains as a solid spoon would.
Made from natural olive wood, an abundant material in the Mediterranean known for its heat resistance, making risotto with such a spoon can be the difference in getting your risotto to a near-perfect soft-yet-firm consistency.
14. Cheese Grater
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Give your dinner guests an authentic Italian restaurant experience, by bringing a glistening chrome grater and cherry wood bowl to the table with their favorite hard cheese.
Whether you grate it directly over their food or serve shavings in the bowl for everyone to help themselves, these little touches will elevate your dining experience for all invited.
Related: 20 Italian Cheeses You Need in Your Life
15. Parmesan Knife
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When it comes to hard cheeses like parmesan, plenty of household knives simply don’t ‘cut it’, excuse the pun!
For your Italian-themed dinner parties, have a beautifully engraved cheese knife on hand, complete with a sturdy wooden handle, to slice your parmesan and other cheeses with precision and ease.
Dessert & Drinks Tools and Gadgets
16. Cannoli Forms
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Looking to wow your dinner guests with a dessert that oozes, quite literally, decadence and creaminess? Serve up a large plate of ricotta-filled cannoli for a sweet treat that everyone at the table will struggle to stop themselves from gorging on!
These simple steel cannoli forms will help you mold your pastry dough into that delightfully iconic shell shape. Once fried, you’re good to fill them with sweet ricotta, or any creamy filling that takes your fancy.
17. Pizzelle Maker
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If that sweet and crispy bite of authentic Italian pizzelle has always enchanted you, why not serve up a big plate to your dinner guests following a hearty main and plenty of wine?
This pizelle maker makes it easy to bake sweet and crispy pizzelle from your home kitchen. Once you’ve mixed your batter, simply fill the mold, then press shut to bake two cookies at a time, and enjoy these beloved Italian treats with friends and family.
Related: 18 Traditional & Popular Italian Desserts with Recipes You Will Love
18. Biscuit Maker
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Want to take your biscuit-making beyond the realm of pizzelle? A simple biscuit maker press, like this one, can create creative and decadent cookies and biscuits with ease, ready to be baked in the oven.
Once your dough has been mixed, simply slot in your desired disc shape, add your dough, and press to create cookie shapes that are bound to put plenty of smiles on faces.
Once baked, serve them with jams, creams, and other sweet treats for a dessert that is both simple and abundant.
19. Tigelle/Crescentine Mold
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Bring one of Emilia-Romagna’s most beloved street foods to your Italian dinner party with a simple crescentine mold, and enjoy this popular food either as a savory or sweet snack post-dinner.
This elegantly designed baking handle allows you to bake these delicious flatbreads in batches, ready to be enjoyed with pesto, meat, and cheese, or jams, cream, and dipping chocolate for a truly indulgent dessert.
Related: 16 Most Popular Italian Street Foods to Try in Italy
20. Moka Pot
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To offer coffee with dessert in Italy is not even a suggestion; it’s pretty much a rite of passage. What better way to keep things authentically Italian than with a vintage moka pot, to serve up rich, hot espresso the way it has been for generations.
Good things come to those who wait. While modern electric coffee makers may be quicker, the deep, intense flavor that comes with using a traditional European pot just isn’t comparable.
Make sure you have a bag or two of your favorite ground coffee on hand and enjoy the craft and method of making coffee the way Italians have for centuries.
21. Napoletana Coffee Maker
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Want to serve up traditional coffee to your guests, Neapolitan-style? Brew your espresso in a sleek Napoletana coffee maker, like this one, and savor that rich, intense taste modern coffee makers can’t come close to.
Especially if you’re serving Napoletana pizza, this is a great coffee gadget to have in your kitchen to keep things traditional.
22. Corkscrew
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A couple of bottles of silky red or crisp white wine are always welcome at the table of any Italian dinner party.
If you’ve ordered some Italian wines to serve to your guests, have a beautifully crafted corkscrew, like this one, on-hand to uncork the bottles with ease and precision.
Italian Cooking Tools and Gadgets Summary
Italian food is some of the most celebrated and beloved in all of the world, with dishes and staples finding homes in all corners of the world.
What makes Italian cuisine so wonderfully flavorful is its simplicity. Italian dishes often use everyday, humble ingredients, and the preparing and cooking techniques are what deliver some of the most iconic tastes and flavors in world cuisine.
These inventive Italian cooking gadgets will put the power in your hands to take your Italian food to new and exciting places. They will help you focus on the finer details, so that you can deliver dishes that wow anyone who tries them, and bring plenty of tradition and authenticity to your Italian-inspired cooking.
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