One of America's Favorites - Spaghetti and Meatballs with Garlic Bread

Spaghetti with meatballs (or spaghetti and meatballs) is an Italian-American dish that usually consists of spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs.



It is widely believed that spaghetti with meatballs was an innovation of early 20th-century Italian

immigrants in New York City; the National Pasta Association (originally named the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association) is said to be the first organization to publish a recipe for it, in the 1920s.

Italian writers often mock the dish as pseudo-Italian or non-Italian  because, in Italy, meatballs are uncommon and smaller.

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. Other dishes that have similarities to spaghetti and meatballs include include pasta seduta 'seated pasta' and maccaroni azzese in Apulia.

Totally different are the baked pasta dishes from Apulia, 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.

...and Spaghetti and Meatballs are always better with Garlic Bread



One of America's Favorites - Garlic Bread

Garlic bread (also garlic toast) consists of bread (usually a baguette or sour dough like a ciabatta),

topped with garlic and olive oil or butter and may include additional herbs, like chives. It is then either grilled or broiled until toasted, or baked in a conventional or bread oven.

It is typically made using a French baguette, or sometimes a sourdough like ciabatta which is partially sliced downwards, allowing the condiments to soak into the loaf while keeping it in one piece. The bread is then stuffed through the cuts with oil and minced garlic before baking. Alternatively, butter and garlic powder are used, or the bread is cut lengthwise into separate slices which are individually garnished.

Some variants are topped with a variety of cheeses, often mozzarella, cheddar or feta. Some restaurants use clarified butter in place of olive oil.

Commercially manufactured frozen garlic bread was developed in the 1970s by Cole's Quality Foods in Muskegon, Michigan.