Atlas 150 Pasta Machine

I bought a Marcato Atlas 150 manual pasta machine last Sunday at Sur La Table in SoHo. This is the classic Italian-made "chromed" machine that cranks out 150 mm (almost 6-inches) wide sheets of pasta and comes with the standard cutters for making fettucine and tagliolini. It was the smaller of the two sizes on the shelf and cost $59.95. (The wider version - the Atlas 180 - makes 7-inch wide sheets and was $10 more.) The are all types of attachments for the machine - various cutters, a motor, a ravioli maker. Several other models and the full line of attachments and accessories are easily found on-line at good prices.

The machines come with a booklet that provides instructions in 10 languages for how to make the dough and use the machine. Interesting tid-bits: use room temperature eggs and never rinse the machine with water.

Recipes for fresh pasta are easy and pretty flexible. The one that comes with the machine calls for 1 lb of "soft" (all purpose) flour and 5 eggs. The soft flour, all egg mixture produces a dough that is best when you want a lighter pasta - like for lasagna, ravioli, and tortelini, or for pappardelle, fettucine or tagliolini. If you like your pasta al dente, use fewer eggs and add a little water instead. For machine-less, hand-shaped pasta like orecchiette, I mix half semolina and half soft flour and use no eggs at all. When making pasta just for me, I use only semolina and water.

The Atlas 150 is ready to use right out of the box. What you do with the clamp, the crank, the rollers and the cutters is pretty intuitive. Blow off any dust and prime the rollers and cutters with a piece of dough to pick up any dirt or excessive oil (then toss it). Now get cranking.