Little Italy in New York: This is where spaghetti and meatballs originated
If we ask you about your favourite cuisine, would you choose Italian? If yes, what are the dishes you love? Probably pizza and spaghetti with meatballs, right? Wait, the last one is wrong. Ask why? Because although it seems like it is an Italian dish, believe us when we say that it is neither served nor devoured in Italy. No, we aren’t joking with you. Although spaghetti did originate in Italy, considering it as a kind of pasta (made in the shape of long thin strings, resembling noodles), the staple dish of spaghetti and meatballs that you prefer as your Friday night dinner isn’t Italian in origin. If you want to know more, keep reading.
Born in Little Italy
As it turns out, spaghetti arrived in the USA with Italian immigrants in the 19th century. However, these Italian settlers were soon upset as they couldn’t find the different ingredients (read: cheese) that they preferred to make their spaghetti with. This is when they decided to combine it with meatballs and tomato sauce to see how it tastes. Guess what? It tasted wonderful! What’s more interesting is that the New York neighbourhood where large number of Italian-American population lived came to be known as Little Italy, right after spaghetti and meatballs emerged popular from there. What also worked for the Little Italy population was the fact that meatballs were much affordable in the USA than in Italy. This turned it into their staple food.
Inspired from pasta with meat of Southern Italy
Food historians however suggest that the dish was inspired from pasta served with meat that traces back to medieval Southern Italy and can be found documented in present-day Italian cookbooks. It was known as “maccheroni alle polpette” in Italian. Interestingly, meat in pasta used to appear in cubes and not in the shape of balls made out of minced or ground meat that is first seasoned and then cooked under low flame.
Italians however maintain spaghetti and meatballs as a pseudo-Italian or non-Italian dish because meatballs in Italy are smaller and are served separately with egg-based baked pasta (yes, like your favourite lasagne).
From pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce to spaghetti and meatballs
What most people don’t know is that the first ever meatball spaghetti recipe was published in 1888 by Italian-American chef based in New York named Juliet Corson. It was called Pasta with Meatballs and Tomato Sauce. Later, in 1909, Beef Balls with Spaghetti appeared in the 13th edition of the American Cookery journal. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s that the name Spaghetti with Meatballs stuck around, thanks to the National Pasta Association, a trade association of professionals in the US. In 1931, an authentic Italian restaurant in New Jersey started serving canned Spaghetti with Meatballs in Sauce that became an overnight sensation. Another seven years down the line and the phrase that now gets us all excited was born: Spaghetti and Meatballs.