Spaghetti and meatballs is an iconic dish: whether it’s Lady and the Tramp that springs to mind at the name, cosying up over a shared bowl of the stuff, facilitating their canine kissing, or Henry Hill describing the prison meatballs that they make to remind them of home in Goodfellas, while Paulie slices garlic paper-thin with a razor blade, there’s no denying that this pasta dish is one which has taken on significance beyond the sum of its parts.
I rather hope that I never find myself in the position of either Henry Hill (imprisoned for mob crimes) or either of the romantic leads in Lady and the Tramp (snogging a dog), but I understand the impulse to create romance or nostalgia with food – and spaghetti and meatballs feels like the kind of dish your Italian-American grandmother would serve, even if you don’t have one.
I make no attempt at authenticity here, either Italian or Italian-American: these are just really great meatballs – dressed in what is probably my number one tomato sauce.
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