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Spaghetti and meatballs facts for kids

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Spaghetti and meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs 1.jpg
Spaghetti and meatballs
Course Main course
Place of origin United States
Region or state New York City
Serving temperature Hot
Main ingredients Spaghetti, tomato sauce, meatballs
SpaghettiandMeatballs
Close-up view of spaghetti and meatballs

Spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti with meatballs is an Italian-American dish consisting of spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs. It is most similar to the Italian dish maccheroni alla chitarra con polpette.

History

Spaghetti and meatballs was an innovation of Italian immigrants in New York City, who had access to a more plentiful meat supply than in Italy.

  • 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.
  • The National Pasta Association (originally named the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association) published a recipe for spaghetti with meatballs in the 1920s.
  • 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.

Italian writers and chefs often mock the dish as pseudo-Italian or non-Italian, because in Italy meatballs are smaller and are 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 (The Silver Spoon), 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 (polpettine). It is a traditional made-in-Abruzzo recipe. It is generally a first course (primo piatto) prepared with chitarra pasta, pasta cut with a traditional tool called a chitarra (guitar) with cutting wires which resemble guitar strings. The pasta is seasoned with meat or vegetable ragù and served with pallottine ("little balls").

Spaghetti alla chitarra con pallottine (Teramo)
Chitarra alla Teramana (con pallottine)

Other dishes that have similarities to spaghetti and meatballs include pasta seduta (seated pasta) 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 (involtini in Italian) and braciole ("bra'zhul" in Italian-American and Italian-Australian slang) that are cooked within sauce but pulled out to be served as a second course.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Spaghetti and meatballs para niños

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