Spaghetti and meatballs – was there ever a more perfect pairing?
I mean what other dish can claim to be the centre of the most iconic scene involving dogs eating dinner ever? You know the one I mean – in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp.
The dish is so well-known there’s even a song written about the adventures of a rogue meatball in ‘On Top of Spaghetti’.
Nothing is more sacred than a meatball’s place being served in a tomatoey sauce on a pile of spaghetti.
Well, that was what we thought yesterday.
Today, we found out everything we thought we knew about spaghetti and meatballs is a lie.
You see spaghetti and meatballs isn't the fundamental Italian dish we all thought it was. No - it's not even bloody Italian at all.
As top Italian-American chef Silvia Baldini informed us all during an interview with The Independent we should not be serving spaghetti and meatballs together - not if we want to be authentically Italian.
"Of course meatballs don’t go on spaghetti," he says, insisting that Italians never serve spaghetti as a side dish for meat or chicken either.
Listen: Michelle Bridges admits that her and Steve do eat pasta and drink wine.
And if they don't go on spaghetti in Italy - the birthplace of pasta - where the hell do they go, you ask? Baldini says meatballs are actually most commonly served as an entree, without sauce. That's right, they don't even need a SAUCE.
So where did spaghetti and meatballs actually originate? It was the home of many great modifications (some would say bastardisations) of original dishes - the United States of America. Baldini says Italian-American immigrants first created the dish.
And if you think this must be all wrong, wrong, wrong because that time you went on a holiday to Italy you saw the dish on the menu, don't be fooled. The chef says this is only to cater to tourists.
You got that? Spaghetti and meatballs is not Italian, it's American.
The good news? The authenticity of a dish far more sacred to most Australian families - spaghetti bolognese AKA spag bol - is intact. Although, your standard 500g mince + jar of Dolmio + boiled pasta isn't exactly the way the Italians used to make it. (Surprising, we know).
For a more authentic version of the popular comfort food, cook the sauce from scratch, adding pancetta, celery, carrots and red wine to your tomato and onion mixture.
Baldini also insists tagliatelle is the more suitable pasta, but we're going to firmly agree to disagree on that one.
Did you know Italians don't traditionally serve spaghetti with meatballs?
Top Comments
Authentic bolognese is more meaty, and barely tomatoey.
Also strongly suggested is a small grating of fresh nutmeg :)