years ago I read that Tinos deli on Arthur Ave in the Bronx has exclusive rights to import some of Italy’s best dried pasta. Unfortunately, the article didn’t mention the brand name 
, now that I think about it, we shop at Borgattis and at one point they mentioned their dried pasta, when cooked, is every bit as good as their fresh pasta.
I wonder if we need a best dried pasta thread…
One of these might work, or a new one:
I’ve decided to take the same approach as when I started making pizza dough: spend the first year working the dough by hand, stretching, cutting it manually, and seeing where that takes me. Once I have a good feel for working with pasta dough, I might invest in a pasta maker.
maybe I’ll purchase one of those long wooden dowels, if nothing else, no one will mess with me on the subway
Best,
The long dowel would be fun, but the grannies use a whole range of rolling pins, including normal size ones 
I wish I’d seen @Claus thread before leaving Italy, I’d have dedicated a suitcase to dried pasta.
I am 100% for loading suitcases with food.
But most of those brands are pretty easily available here. Maybe not the full range of shapes, though.
But, strangely, no one seems to be making it with a ball-bearing rolling pin. And before you go rushing off to prove me wrong, just why, exactly, are you trying to talk sense into me?
Have you, perhaps, formed an unholy alliance with my wife? A secret cabal dedicated to preventing me from filling our apartment with large, entirely unnecessary but deeply satisfying tools and appliances
Noooooo! You found us out!
I went through a “I’ll make pasta” phase, but have since offloaded several items onto a sibling who is now in that phase (including a ravioli rolling pin that is also an effective weapon). He also got the Philips pasta maker as a birthday gift from me because his spouse had denied the purchase of yet another appliance . (But now he’s into non-machine of course, because why use appliances you fought to own.)
You are among friends.
a story for another day but a friend returning from spain snuck an entire Jamon Iberico ham under his coat. I was tempted to “import” some Culatello but in the end, decided it was just not worth the stress.
My rolling pin is a leftover length of closet rod. It works just fine. In fact, it was too long, so I cleaved it in twain. I have a larger pin (about 18", I think) and a smaller one (8-9"). Mrs. ricepad wields a huge marble one that I can’t control easily, the thing is too damn heavy. When she’s using it, I make sure not to piss her off, lest she brain me with it.
Maybe start out with a small “Gnocchi Board” and slowly expand your pasta making arsenal??
On one of my trips to India, I brought 2 small suitcases. One for clothes, the other held just Wilson oranges. (No longer available but they were the very best oranges ever, and I’m not all that keen on oranges.)
I was taking a long bus ride from Delhi to Chandigarh (was going to be driven onward to Jalandhar) and in the way saw big mounds of oranges for sale everywhere along the road.
But my oranges were special, special gifts to people I was visiting.
Of course your experience will be your own . . . but I have a crank (Atlas), the Kitchen Aid roller attachments, a large rolling pin (mattarello), and a cavatelli maker (internet photo attached if you aren’t familiar with them).
I use them all, though my crank machine gets the least use. the rolling pin the most use these days. But I go through phases.
The hand crank gets the least use because its more work but also because it doesn’t fit well on all my countertops. It requires an over hang for the c-clamp to secure it well and while it works great on my island it doesn’t secure as well on my wall counters (less overhang and the drawer pulls get in the way a little). So that is a practical thing to consider. If you have “fancy” counters (e.g. waterfall edges or extra think stone, etc) it may not work at all - and if you can’t clamp it down well . . .then you’ll never use it.
Right now I’m “into” hand made semolina dough shapes - so I use the rolling pin to make sheets and then cut and form by hand.
Second place right now is the cavatelli maker - it’s a winter thing for me as it makes hearty little pasta shapes that go great with a rich tomato sauce, which I always crave in the winter.
I also like the rolling pin because (as I said on a lasagna thread here at some point) it is super easy to roll out large sheets of pasta which you can custom cut to whatever pan you’re using for lasagna. So one sheet per layer, edge to edge. I love it.
The difference between the crank and the Kitchen Aid attachments is cost and convenience. So that comes down to personal preferences and trade-offs. And if you don’t have a Kitchen Aid then the attachments aren’t really an option anyway . . . .
My go-to is a small (12"), thin, tapered, lightweight rolling pin that I grew up with (chapatis are supposed to delicately twirl under a light hand when made correctly). I later acquired varying lengths and widths.
For AP flour based doughs that are more elastic / stubborn, you definitely need a heavier cylinder than for ww dough. But I do agree with you on marble. My mom bought one because it was so pretty, and it’s still pretty and still unused, lol.
In mango season, people leave with big wooden crates of mangoes in lieu of suitcases.
The cost of a 3 foot mattarello on Amazon? $40. The look on my wife’s face as I find a place for it in our kitchen? Priceless.
I found this rolling pin at Goodwill. I don’t know if it has ball bearings in it or not. It is quite heavy and I find myself using it almost exclusively. I don’t have a tortilla press, so when I make flour tortillas this rolling pin is perfect for that job, among others.
My first “mattarello” was a wooden dowel from Home Depot to see what I thought. I think it was 4ft long, which is long depending on your kitchen size. And it was maybe $10 or so (if memory serves) It lived in the coat closet.
Ours was a wedding present, so we’ve had it since spring 2012. We’ve used it maybe twice. It’s somewhere among the kitchen cabinets.
There’s more control with non-bearing pin.
