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It's not that those foods aren't found in Italy, they're mostly just not found served like they are here. Spaghetti with meatballs exists, it's just that you'd

It's not that those foods aren't found in Italy, they're mostly just not found served like they are here. Spaghetti with meatballs exists, it's just that you'd have spaghetti usually first. Meatballs here are simplistically polpette al sugo there, and would be eaten as a meat course after the pasta. Chicken parm is one too many ingredients slammed together. You have chicken cutlets there for sure. It would usually (but not always) be eaten more simply than with sauce and cheese on it, and not served over or next to pasta like here. A lot of that is also more distant generation Italian-American. My parents, who are from different regions of Italy, and my grandparents, one of whom grew up in Italian Africa, didn't really make this stuff. Not to say it isn't good, I just think it's been changed to fit the US in two big ways - first, that meat (and food generally) is cheaper here, so we eat a lot more meat; and second, everything on one plate, since IMHO Americans want to eat faster than Italians would.

carlob 10y ago
Not true, spaghetti con le polpettine is a thing, just not very common nowadays, and not spread throughout the country.
- SmellTheGlove 10y ago
  Polpettine are different than the Italian-American meatballs that you'll find over here. Much smaller, and one bite in with the pasta. American polpette are more like polpette Napoletane (and for good reason, that's who brought them here) and quite often even larger than that. You have to cut them to eat them, even if it's just with a fork. Too big, in my opinion, to eat with pasta. I serve them as secondo.
  - carlob 10y ago
    You are also assuming that Italian cuisine didn't evolve in the past century. Even the most famous Italian dish: pizza margherita is not 150 years old. There are very common dishes nowadays, for example carpaccio, that pare post-ww2 inventions. Did you know that Quebecois French is closer to old French than proper French French? Can you safely say it isn't us who have evolved and Italo-Americans who have stayed the same?
    - SmellTheGlove 10y ago
      No, I think that both Italian and Italian-American cooking have evolved over that time. Italian-American cooking isn't a snapshot of early century southern Italy, and neither is a given Italian region a snapshot of its past. Both have moved forward independently. Both have changed a bit in my lifetime.

carlob 10y ago

Not true, spaghetti con le polpettine is a thing, just not very common nowadays, and not spread throughout the country.

SmellTheGlove 10y ago
Polpettine are different than the Italian-American meatballs that you'll find over here. Much smaller, and one bite in with the pasta. American polpette are more like polpette Napoletane (and for good reason, that's who brought them here) and quite often even larger than that. You have to cut them to eat them, even if it's just with a fork. Too big, in my opinion, to eat with pasta. I serve them as secondo.
- carlob 10y ago
  You are also assuming that Italian cuisine didn't evolve in the past century. Even the most famous Italian dish: pizza margherita is not 150 years old. There are very common dishes nowadays, for example carpaccio, that pare post-ww2 inventions. Did you know that Quebecois French is closer to old French than proper French French? Can you safely say it isn't us who have evolved and Italo-Americans who have stayed the same?
  - SmellTheGlove 10y ago
    No, I think that both Italian and Italian-American cooking have evolved over that time. Italian-American cooking isn't a snapshot of early century southern Italy, and neither is a given Italian region a snapshot of its past. Both have moved forward independently. Both have changed a bit in my lifetime.