Top chef reveals you should NEVER serve meatballs with spaghetti if you want to..

[eye45]

well, I mean it's true that spaghetti and meatballs is not a thing in Italy, but in Puglia where I lived for a long time when I was young, we often eat polpette/meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta grossa. really not that different from american spaghetti and meatballs. But anyway I still find spaghetti and meatballs amazing, no matter what any of my Italian friends say. I mean there are areas in Italy, where pasta grossa is eaten with meatballs and tomato sauce, like in Puglia. I also know in Calabria (told me by a few friends from there) they do occasionally eat pasta with polpette and tomato sauce. But I think it was a local thing only of certain areas in the south, certainly not a common thing.

And no, i'm not tlaking about pastal al forno, but actual pasta with polpette and tomato sauce:



Or even just orecchiette con le polpette; in puglia we generally fry first the meatballs, then mix them with tomato sauce and use it on pasta; this is a typical and common dish in Puglia:






Is it really that different? For me not really.

[PixieDust]

I never eat meatballs with spaghetti. That just ruins the flavor.

[Wadaad]

am I the only one who thinks authentic Italian food sucks and I prefer NY style pizzas, creamy fettucine alfredo, etc?

[Drawing-slim]

Italian food is just so out of "style" for my taste right now.

[Vyasa]

am I the only one who thinks authentic Italian food sucks and I prefer NY style pizzas, creamy fettucine alfredo, etc?

Authentic food is probably healthier though.

[Isleño]

Lot of this Americanized foreign cuisine is often hated, but its still really damn good most of the time.

I agree. I've had some really good spaghetti and meatballs. I had an Italian-American friend and his grandmother made the best meatballs and spaghetti I've ever tasted. You literally had to get seconds it was so good. There's just lots of hate going on here because it's not actual Italian, but Italian-American, but that doesn't mean it's not good when you get some from someone that can cook it well. Italian immigrants in the US used whatever was on hand and whatever they had access to, and an Italian-American cuisine developed out of this.

[Isleño]

am I the only one who thinks authentic Italian food sucks and I prefer NY style pizzas, creamy fettucine alfredo, etc?

I actually like Italian-American food. There's some really good stuff out there.

[Wanderer]

Yeah, I recognize that spaghetti and meatball is Italian-American. What's wrong with that? What everyone seems to fail to understand is that Italian-American cuisine is not intended to be an imitation of what they eat in Italy. Italian-American cuisine is its own thing, and our foods are obviously widely popular among American society at large.

This guy can shove his "authentic Italian food" where the sun don't shine.

[Isleño]

Yeah, I recognize that spaghetti and meatball is Italian-American. What's wrong with that? What everyone seems to fail to understand is that Italian-American cuisine is not intended to be an imitation of what they eat in Italy. Italian-American cuisine is its own thing, and our foods are obviously widely popular among American society at large.

This guy can shove his "authentic Italian food" where the sun don't shine.

Amen!

[Isleño]

well, I mean it's true that spaghetti and meatballs is not a thing in Italy, but in Puglia where I lived for a long time when I was young, we often eat polpette/meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta grossa. really not that different from american spaghetti and meatballs. But anyway I still find spaghetti and meatballs amazing, no matter what any of my Italian friends say. I mean there are areas in Italy, where pasta grossa is eaten with meatballs and tomato sauce, like in Puglia. I also know in Calabria (told me by a few friends from there) they do occasionally eat pasta with polpette and tomato sauce. But I think it was a local thing only of certain areas in the south, certainly not a common thing.

And no, i'm not tlaking about pastal al forno, but actual pasta with polpette and tomato sauce:



Or even just orecchiette con le polpette; in puglia we generally fry first the meatballs, then mix them with tomato sauce and use it on pasta; this is a typical and common dish in Puglia:






Is it really that different? For me not really.

I was reading a food blog once about this subject and I came across someone from Sicily that said in a particular village in Sicily, they eat pasta with meatballs and marinara, very similar to the US version. I'm trying to find the name of the dish he called it.