Cassinelli Food Products

Astoria
31-12 23rd Avenue
at 31st St.

P: 718.274.4881

Cassinelli has been in business for decades and today under the careful direction of Tony Bonfigli, they continue to produce and sell some of New York's most flavorful fresh pastas.  They have a retail store in Astoria where you can buy fresh cut pastas, fresh and frozen filled pastas including ravioli and tortellini (with spinach, meat, cheese and other fillings), and sheets of pasta for lasagna or to make your own ravioli.  The pastas are also sold in a few Astoria grocers and under the label of other top markets across the city.

What's great:

Their pasta has wonderful flavor and is hand made in the factory behind the Astoria storefront.  Pasta sheets are usually sold with corn meal to keep them separated and while this isn't a problem for lasagna (pre-cooking the sheets washes off the corn meal), it's a problem if your goal is to make your own ravioli.  But here you can buy pasta sheets of pasta separated by plastic which makes the whole task a breeze. 

What to know:

If you used to love the fresh pastas sold at Balducci's -- the original Balducci's -- these are the folks who made it.  They still make the pasta sold at some of New York's best markets, including Agata & Valentina, and cooked at some of the city's better Italian restaurants. 

The retail store is open Thursday to Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Closed on Sunday and Monday.