Spaghetti and meatballs


Spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti with meatballs is an Italian-American dish consisting of spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs.

History

In 1888, Juliet Corson of New York published a recipe for pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce.
In 1909 a recipe for "Beef Balls with Spaghetti" appeared in American Cookery, Volume 13.
In 1931 Venice Maid in New Jersey was selling canned "spaghetti with meatballs in sauce".
In 1938 the exact phrase "spaghetti and meatballs" appeared in a list of canned foods produced by Ettore Boiardi, later known as Chef Boyardee, in Milton, Pa.
It is widely believed that spaghetti and meatballs was an innovation of early 20th-century Italian immigrants in New York City, who had access to a more plentiful meat supply than in Italy. The National Pasta Association is said to be the first organization to publish a recipe for it, in the 1920s.
Italian writers and chefs often mock the dish as pseudo-Italian or non-Italian because, in Italy, meatballs are smaller and only served with egg-based, baked pasta.
However, various kinds of pasta with meat are part of the culinary tradition of the Abruzzo, Apulia, Sicily, and other parts of southern Italy. A recipe for rigatoni with meatballs is in Il cucchiaio d'argento, a comprehensive Italian cookbook known as the "bible" of Italian cooking.
In fact, in Abruzzo, chitarra alla teramana, is a long spaghetti-like pasta served with small meatballs. It is a traditional made-in-Abruzzo recipe. It is generally a first course prepared with chitarra pasta, pasta cut with a traditional tool called a chitarra with cutting wires which resemble guitar strings. The pasta is seasoned with meat or vegetable ragù and served with pallottine.
Other dishes that have similarities to spaghetti and meatballs include pasta seduta and maccaroni azzese in Apulia.
Some baked pasta dishes from Apulia combine pasta and meat where meatballs, mortadella, or salami are baked with rigatoni, tomato sauce, and mozzarella, then covered with a pastry top.
Other pasta recipes include slices of meat rolled up with cheese, cured meats and herbs and braciole that are cooked within sauce but pulled out to be served as a second course.