Even after three years in business, it's still difficult to get a table at Flour + Water, but the restaurant's recently-opened deli Salumeria offers a quick fix at a cheaper price: 16-ounce packages of dried, handmade pasta. Priced at $8.99, they yield about eight modest servings at home.
Varieties are unusual for these shores and include aleppo pacchieri (short tubes), porcini strozzapreti (literally "priest choker" for its twisty shape), and radiatore (radiator-shaped). We took home the strozzapreti not for any untoward feelings about organized religion but rather for the guess that they would not need much accompaniment in order to be very flavorful, a hunch that later proved correct.
Salumeria's tiny but focused selection of housemade and other sausages and meats are also possibilities to enliven this purchase. While it's not exactly the same cooking Flour + Water's pasta at home as eating in the restaurant, where the pasta might have been made mere hours before you sit down, you won't have to wait for a communal table and your meal can be as quiet as you want it.
