i have a smaller mattarello and have tried that, and it makes a huge difference. i got mine from www.nonnaswoodshop.com/en-us . chef funke even suggests in his book that you can get a dowel at your hardware store which he provides good sizes and lengths and how to sand it. 36" is quite a good length. the idea is that it should be wider than your entire dough rolled out so that your hands are on the outsides of the dough. as for flour, i have tried many types, but my local grocery store unbleached sifted all purpose flour always does a great job. i honestly have never noticed a difference in pasta making between that and the 00 flour that i used to buy for a much higher price.

you press in the middle of each one to ensure that they rise upwards evenly

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