Home & Kitchen · Head-to-head
Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine vs Cuisinart Pastafecto Pasta & Bread Dough Maker
Which should you buy? Our verdict on both, pulled from our full The Best Pasta Makers: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) comparison.
The Atlas 150 is the pasta maker to gift: made in Italy, 150mm rollers, 9 thicknesses down to 0.3mm - $120 and it lasts decades. The Pastafecto is the $260 automatic extruder for effort-free pasta. The Atlasmotor is the motorized it-depends at $231. Skip Aunt Gina's - the $50 clone that cuts the corners the original doesn't.
Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine
Buy itThe Italian classic - 150mm rollers, 9 thicknesses down to 0.3mm, made in Italy - $120 and built to outlive you.
- Made entirely in Italy - the machine that's been the manual-pasta benchmark since the 1960s.
- 150mm-wide rollers adjust to 9 thicknesses, from 2.5mm down to 0.3mm - wide enough for lasagna sheets, thin enough for tagliolini.
- Anodized aluminum-alloy rollers don't shed metal oxides onto dough - the food-safety detail clones skip.
- Interchangeable cutters and accessories: swap heads for fettuccine, spaghetti, ravioli and more.
- $120 is the premium manual price - clones sell the same shape for less.
- Hand-crank means one hand feeds dough - a clamp and a steady table are required.
- Dry brush clean only - flour paste on wet rollers gums them up.
Cuisinart Pastafecto Pasta & Bread Dough Maker
Buy itThe automatic extruder - dump flour and egg, get fresh pasta in 20 minutes, 6 shapes - $260.
- Fully automatic: it mixes, kneads and extrudes - fresh pasta in about 20 minutes with no cranking.
- 6 shaping discs: spaghetti, rigatoni, fusilli, small macaroni, fettuccine, bucatini - extrusion variety rollers can't match.
- Doubles as a bread-dough kneader - the second function justifies the counter space.
- Compact footprint - the automatic pasta machine that doesn't eat the kitchen.
- $260 for extruded pasta - and extruded texture is different: denser, chewier, not the silky rolled sheet.
- No lasagna sheets or ravioli - extrusion makes shapes, not sheets.
- Discs and parts need cleaning - more fiddly than a brushed-down roller.
Side by side
| Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine | Cuisinart Pastafecto Pasta & Bread Dough Maker | |
|---|---|---|
| Our verdict | Buy | Buy |
| Best for | The definitive pasta-maker gift - the machine Nonna energy comes from, for anyone who'll actually make pasta. | The weeknight pasta lover - fresh shaped pasta with zero technique; not for the sheet-pasta purist. |
| Price tier | $$$ · premium | $$$$ · flagship |
The bottom line
Our overall pick is the Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine - The Italian classic - 150mm rollers, 9 thicknesses down to 0.3mm, made in Italy - $120 and built to outlive you. Choose the Cuisinart Pastafecto Pasta & Bread Dough Maker instead if the weeknight pasta lover - fresh shaped pasta with zero technique; not for the sheet-pasta purist.
Want the full picture, including the other options we compared and the popular one we'd skip? Read the complete The Best Pasta Makers: 4 Compared (and One to Skip).