The Differences Between the Atlas & the Atlas Deluxe Pasta Machines

Atlas is the leading brand of pasta machine. Made by Marcato in Italy, Atlas makes a basic pasta machine with a fixed cutting section. The Atlas 150 is the deluxe version, offering a removable cutting section. This provides a wider range of cutting sizes and noodle shapes. The Atlas 150 offers an optional motor, and is available in custom enameled colors to match your kitchen's decor.

Marcato makes the basic Atlas in the same 6-inch width as the more versatile model 150 pasta machine. One section presses and flattens the sheet of dough, and the second section cuts the dough into either spaghetti or fettuccine noodles. A rotary knob allows you to change the thickness of the dough sheet to produce round or flat noodles. Accessories include an instruction and recipe book, a hand crank and a counter clamp.

Marcato makes the basic Atlas 150 with a removable cutting section. Additional cutting sections increase the number of types of pasta you can make. Change the thickness of the dough sheet to produce round or flat noodles using the rotary knob. The knob has nine positions, which will produce pasta sheets from 0.3 to 2.5 millimeters thick. Accessories include the instruction and recipe book, the hand crank and the counter clamp. The Atlas 150 can be expanded with a range of noodle attachments that slide onto the machine. These attachments include three separate lasagna noodle widths, a linguini attachment, a ravioli attachment and a 1-millimeter capellini attachment.

The Atlas power motor replaces the hand crank, allowing you to use two hands to handle the dough. Attach the motor where the crank handle normally goes to turn the Atlas 150 into a motorized pasta machine, greatly simplifying its operation. The motor fits both the Atlas 150 and Atlas 180 models.

You can further customize your stainless steel Atlas 150 with optional enamel colors. This option has become increasingly popular as home cooks seek to follow a color scheme in their kitchens. The colors are gold, red, blue, pink and black.

The Atlas 180 pasta machine offers a wider size to utilize larger pasta sheets. The larger pasta sheet is approximately 1 inch wider than that of the Atlas 150 machine (7 inches versus 5.9 inches). However, the Atlas 180 does not allow different pasta cutting attachments, nor does it offer the color option.