Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina Comes To Manhattan

Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina is a wonderland of pasta

It's going to be hard to justify reaching for a takeout menu now that the Italian brand Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina has come to Manhattan.

The new restaurant and shop in Chelsea Market boasts cases filled with an astounding variety of shapes, colors and sizes of pasta (up to 30 kinds on any given day), each only requiring two minutes of cooking.

Linguine al nero di seppia (black squid ink linguine, $7.10 per pound) shares space with red lentil spaghetti ($7.10 per pound) and casarecce scrolls made with spelt ($6.30 per pound). Our favorite is the tonnarelli ($6.10 per pound), its teeth ideal for grabbing sauce.

You can buy fresh Bolognese and amatriciana ($5.90 each) sauces, but to let the pastas shine, we found a pat of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice worked beautifully.

And for dessert, there's no reason to change course: Chocolate and pumpkin ravioli ($12.50 per pound) both also take a shining to melted butter.

Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina, Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Ave. (between W. 15th and W. 16th sts.); 212-370-0975 or rananyc.com