Pounds of Pasta in Astoria

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Each week, Cassinelli makes 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of pasta on site, right in the shop for all to see.
The current shop, which is sandwiched between an accountant and a financial adviser on 23rd Avenue near the Ditmars Boulevard subway stop, is such a well-kept secret that even many locals don’t know of it.

That’s mainly because of its limited hours: It operates from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. It is also shuttered behind metal gates every day from 12 to 12:30 so the nine-person crew can eat lunch together. Up until recently, Ms. Costella, who is 83 and uses a cane, cooked pasta for everyone. These days, they order fast food, usually pizza or burgers.

Aside from a dark green awning the color of the stripe in the Italian flag and a small sign in the front window, it doesn’t advertise itself.

Cassinelli sells three dozen types of pasta. The standards — cheese ravioli, egg fettuccine and rigatoni — are rounded out by rarities like gemelli, which is colloquially called unicorn horns, squid-ink linguine and custom-order fusi sheets.

“Benito doesn’t come for the great pasta,” he said, switching to English.

Mr. Calanni, happily taking the bait, concurred. “I come for the insults.”