Hmmm - I have some of those shells in my stash. Good observation!
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I made a Italian variation of Trini Mac Pie with a elbow macaroni last night. I really liked it.
I used this Trini Mac recipe as a guide for proportions, making a half recipe.
I used a 4 cheese Italian blend with mozzarella, fontina, asiago and parmesan, and some additional parmesan on top, an Italian herb blend, some garlic powder, 1 1/4 cups table cream, butter, 1 egg. It’s the second time for me to make a custard type instead of a white sauce mac and cheese. I like that I don’t have a white sauce saucepan to wash after making it.
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Lowbrow Hawai’ian Mac salad is melding in the fridge for a party tomorrow night featuring kalua pig.
Most times, for other things, I like any shape with ridges, ruffles, holes and hollows to hold more sauce. But for this, I think elbow macaroni is mobettahs.
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I have been meaning to make the macaroni salad in my Sheldon Simeon cookbook.
Actually fully drying pasta at home isn’t terribly practical. Alex “French Guy Cooking” did a whole YouTube series trying to effectively make his own dried pasta.
Ultimate lesson: drying pasta like the kind you can buy in a market is the result of an industrial process and is not readily replicated on an individual scale.
I have made fresh pasta and hung it on hangers, (and a couple of pasta racks (which NEVER seem to last more than 6 mo.) but it’s barely worth the trouble. Dried pasta exists and keeps more or less forever. Why make a version that is neither as shelf stable AND is prone to cracking at the slightest touch when Barilla or DeCecco exist?
If I make fresh pasta it’s because I want the taste of FRESH PASTA.
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I’m late to this thread but let’s see:
Spaghetti (tomato sauces, aglio e olio)
linguini (carbonara, caccio e pepe, Alfredo, pink sauce)
Elbows (mac and cheese)
Ziti (random noodles with butter and cheese)
TJ’s Fusili Bucatini Corti (little spring shaped tubes. Great for caccio type recipes and othe Mac n cheeses)
Japanese soba noodles
A Costco pack of top ramen (handy for “I don’t wanna cook” or times of touchy tummy)
Kraft blue box
Cheetos-flavored Mac n cheese (don’t you judge me!!)
Several of those pasta-roni side dish things. Esp the shells and white cheddar. Love that one)
Annies’s shells and white cheddar. (On sale)
I’ve tried using those flat rice noodles but I’ve never been successful. I’m sure my technique was to blame. They ended up in a billion little pieces.
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I usually buy rice noodles already portioned in bundles so it minimizes breakage when I take them out of the package. The brand I buy calls for soaking them in hot water for 5 minutes
Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever had (or noticed) potatoes and boiled eggs in HMS.
The way to understand this dish is to understand Hawai’i’s remoteness. It really is at the end of a very long logistical tail, so anything not produced in the 'aina was literally beyond the means of most people. Cheap boxed macaroni and jarred mayo also shipped and kept without refrigeration. This also explains the place of SPAM in the cuisine. Today we take jet cargo planes and refrigerated container shipping for granted.
Whether or not you add spuds and eggs, here are four suggestions based on what I do: For each pound of dry Mac, include (1) two tablespoons of cider vinegar; (2) a quarter cup milk; and (3) a little grated onion in the mayo dressing. Then (4): Fold 1/2 the dressing into the still-warm pasta; mix in the other 1/2 after chilling or even just before serving. Best made a day ahead.
If I want to riff, it’s with a ground pepper or hot sauce in the dressing.
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No laying hens in Hawai’i?
That’s certainly not what all the feral chickens in Lahaina suggest. I hope their population has recovered after the fire. They added a lot of fun character to the town.
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That’s why I was confused about the non-availability of eggs 
That said, I probz wouldn’t want them in my mac salad, anyway 
I’m late to this thread too:
I’m a dried pasta/noodle hoarder. If you search my house you’ll find packs of the stuff not just in my kitchen, but also in no fewer than 3 wardrobes! That habit of food stockpiling started during the pandemic.
Tons of basic spaghetti. We use it for both Italian and Asian cooking.
Penne
Fusilli
Macaroni
Orzo
Tagliatelle
Conchiglie
Lasagna sheets
Bucatini
Angel hair (didn’t like this - gets too sticky, maybe the brand isn’t good)
Medium Asian style egg noodles
Fine Asian style egg noodles
Rice vermicelli
Plain ramen nests (fine, curly)
Our local Turkish shop has some unique small shapes like tiny macaroni or tiny farfalle which I buy sometimes. I get my orzo from this shop.
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I have to stop myself from buying more pasta every time I’m tempted. Good thing it’s all shelf-stable 
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@Phoenikia here’s CI’s recipe, which I have made and enjoyed:
Serves 8 to 10
2 cups whole milk
2 cups mayonnaise
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper
1 pound elbow macaroni
1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 scallions , sliced thin
1 large carrot , peeled and grated
1 celery rib , chopped fine
Make the dressing: Whisk cups milk, 1 cup mayonnaise, sugar, teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper in bow.
You boil the pasta for 15 minutes, drain, and dress with the vinegar while hot. Let cool 10 min and add the dressing. Cool completely and toss with the remaining ingredients.
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Thank you! Need to buy macaroni!
I corrected the directions above.
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How shelf stable is most DeCecco, Barilla or store brand dried pasta?
Most of the pastas i pick up have a “use by” date that is 12 to 24 months out.
It seems to me that they would last longer than that with minimal nutrition loss and small chance of spoilage if kept in a cool, dark pantry.
Is my assumption correct?
Because i have always liked to have a well stocked pantry. And the majority of my goods are pasta, beans, tuna, greens and corn.
I must admit I never bother looking at use by dates for things like pasta. As long as something looks and smells OK to eat, I’ll eat it. I will store it in a cool dark place. I’ve eaten food out of sealed cans and jars that was many years out of date - and lived to tell the tale.
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Presumably, sorted in a cool, dark, and DRY environment, dried packaged pasta has a usability window of YEARS. I suppose the very minimal amounts of fat in it might get oxidize and take on rancid notes after an extended period. And I guess it could go… stale? But even those changes would just mean a less than ideal product, rather than something unsafe to consume.
Heat or uv exposure could cause the proteins to denature and cause the pasta to crumble, and moisture could lead to mold. But good storage would remedy both.
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I have a note that I added grated white or yellow onion.
