Marcato Atlas Wellness Pasta Machine

If you love food, you will love this machine!

Every New year i think about my life and last year i decided to make all my food myself, including pasta and that was the best decision ever. 

A few years ago i was in italy and i discovered that the true taste of pasta and pizza is the one you make yourself. Texture is different and you choose what you put on it. So much fun!

2014 made me think about health and we all eat unhealthy things, you never know what’s in your food. And i would like to get my vitamins :)

So i started to buy myself such a cheap pastamachine at “Kruidvat" for only 9 euro. I was convinced that would give me the best pasta, unfortunately the machine almost fell appart. it was so cheaply made that it was worthless and the pasta tasted like iron. That was not it!

Then i tried to make pasta with a wooden roller, but since i’m completely new to this, it did not work quite well. Then i went searching on the net where to find a good machine and the big question was......which machine?

I realized i had to pay more money for it, cause cheap is.....well yeah “cheap”.

But i did not want to spend too much money to it and i found 2 brands that are the leader among the pasta world  and are very affordable >> Marcato and Imperia.

Why did i choose for a Marcato Wellness?

Marcato puts your health and concept of Wellness into due account : this machine is built with anodized aluminium alloy, so that no metal residues are released into the dough.

For Marcato, the concept of Wellness doe not simply mean using safe materials to manufacture it’s products. it also means following a healthy diet based on simple genuine foods, re-discovering the flavors of italian traditions and the balance of the mediterranean diet. A conscious approach to food, that does not take the pleasure out of it, but rather it entails adopting mental and physical well being as an actual lifestyle.

Marcato continues to perform lab test and extensive controls on its products, and i think that is a wonderful thing. That made me choose for Marcato. They simply care about your health!

Another thing that convinced me to go for Marcato are the removable combs at the scrapers. it’s also made with polymeric resin, therefore in addition to significantly reducing the possibility of any heavy metals being released into the dough. It makes the cutting rollers fully washable.

You can also make more than 12 pasta shapes when you expand your machine with extra attachments.

Where to buy?

After reading a review of someone on a blog, who bought a pink Marcato atlas machine at Kookhuys at leuven, i decided to take a look in the store too.

After calling the store to ask if they had them storage, they said no problem. We have all colors.......

The same day i went to the store and it seemed they only had 3 colors left. Gold, Blue and pink (which were also in the showroom). Price was 113 euro.

I asked the salesman what is the difference between Marcato and Imperia. he said, there is hardly any difference. But i knew the difference between those 2, since i looked it up myself. I did not get any info what so ever.

Then i asked for the pink one and he said he had to go to the back to see if they have some in storage. It seemed not and the one in the showroom was the only one left. I could get 10% off though.

Still, i especially wanted to buy Marcato since it’s so clean, does not leave any resin and then in store the machine was fully in dust. I don’t know how long it was already standing there, but far too long to my concern. Also the turning wheel aws already not working good anymore, possibly cause of people twisting it all the time. Then i thought to myself, this is not what i want and certainly not a dirty one and still have to pay around 100 euro for it!

No thank you! Especially the machine may not be in contact with water, i would never get that dirtiness out of it again. Yuk! i can not think about all that dust inside of the scrapers. I tried to explain that to the salesman, but he looked at me like i was the crazy one. Hello.......Do you think that is normal? 

Be careful with buying on Amazon as well, make sure you get an original one, how cheap they may be and read reviews carefully!

Also i noticed that this machine did not have the “Original Made in Italy” logo on top. So, was it even real? I did not trust them. And decided to look for an original one the net.

Then i found Bol.com. Price was even cheaper and i could buy a red one which i original wanted. All my machines in the kitchen are red <3

So i decided to go for this Red one and it came pretty fast with the “Original made in italy” logo on top Yay!! :D

The Machine

As soon as the machine arrived, i saw the logo and was so nicely packed. Like a christmas present hehe. I knew it was real. i just felt it. The red is not blood red.....rather with some orange in it. A very warm color and you can tell it’s made to last!

In the Box

* A sturdy original box with a user manual in several languages.

* I also had a separate manual in dutch

* You can make 3 pasta shapes : Lasagna, Fettuccine (6mm Tagliatelle) and Tagliolini (1mm thin spaghetti) or also called Capellini.

* You can add more attachments if you want to make even more shapes. Buy separately.

* Clamp to screw on the table (very sturdy material)

* Handle with colored grip (same color as your machine)

Pros

* Rollers are made from anodized aluminium alloy.

* Good clamp

* Trendy colors (9 i think)

* Included 3 pasta shapers (Lasagna, fettuccine and tagliolini)

* Bayonet fitting for assembling a pasta drive motor

* Removable combs

Cons

* Accessoires can be expensive and harder to find.

* The colored handle can fall out if you are not careful. Mine fell out once, it’s till ok.....but it would have been better when it clicked in or so.

The Dough

Simple! Use 100 gr of flour with 1 egg each person.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Personally i use 50/50 Type OO flour with Semolina. The semolina gives the taste and makes your pasta sturdy. 

NOTE : Never use salt in your dough when using a pasta machine. As the salt will kill your machine in time. Salt eats metal parts.

I read that on the Marcato website. I add a lot of salt to my cooking water before i cook the pasta. The dough will absorb the salt and it will have the taste it should be :-)

Think about the cooking time, fresh pasta only needs about 2 minutes to cook. Not the same as dried pasta.

TIP : With this machine i also bought the “Pasta Machine Book” for 10 euro. Unfortunately you can not get it anymore, but find yourself a good book >> You can also see some links on the right side of my blog with books worth reading or buying. 

One last note : I decided not to buy the pasta drive motor, cause i really like the sound of the cranking machine when turning by hand. I also read some reviews that this motor is pretty loud. So, when i think about it....when i have a quit afternoon making my pasta, i don’t want a loud machine to ruin that.