With Foodini, preparing a handmade meal doesn't take nearly as long as it used to.

"Foodini’s main purpose is to take on the difficult and/or time-consuming parts of food preparation that often discourage people from creating homemade food, whether it’s in a home kitchen or a restaurant," Lynette Kucsma, a Foodini cofounder, told Mashable in an email.

Foodini is a 3D printer that can do things such as build already-rolled pasta dough. The device lets you choose from a number of recipes or build your own. To make ravioli, for example, prepare the dough and the filling, load them into the machine's food "capsules" and select "ravioli" on the printer's iPad-like interface. Foodini will then print the ingredients in the shape of fully-formed ravioli, and the only thing left to do is cook them. If your dish requires no cooking, then it's ready to eat as soon as Foodini is finished.

Foodini, which was developed by startup Natural Machines, will cost around $1,300, but won't be a behemoth in your kitchen. It's built to look like a sleek microwave and is about the same size. The 3D printer will also be ready to prepare food as soon you take it out of the box, no assembly required.

Foodini can build anything from a quiche to chocolate in the shape of a snowman, which means it not only assembles complicated dishes faster than you could yourself, but also helps holiday party hosts design clever edible creations.

Natural Machines expects to ship the first wave of its 3D printers in mid-2014.

Image: Lynette Kucsma