Steve .. I did not understand your point -
I am trying to investigate this however not to argue with Stefanaccio but mostly I need to know since it is a question often asked.
Stefanaccio: I just went on mangiarebene which is a pretty famous Italian recipe website - You can see that there are 100s of recipes of pasta but I did not find one for meetballs Ricette pasta pasta secca - Mangiare Bene - Since I will be in Italy for 6 weeks and I will be looking at menus I will bring back a final answer soon.

Ciao Paolo,

Of course you couldn't understand it! I made a complete hash of the message I posted. I'm going to blame it on my keyboard!

Sorry... I edited the message to try to make some sense. Now I'm going to get another glass of prosecco and quit posting!

Buona sera a tutti!

Paolo: Non ho mai mangiato il pesce che hai nominato. Quello che mi fa impazzire e' la conocchia. Ammetto che potrei mangiarne 20 da sola.

E per quanto riguarda "spaghetti with meatballs," avrai raggione. Si, le polpette ho mangiato in italia, ma mai con la pasta, al massimo con un pezzo di pane e un po' di suggo.

Vespa (che va a guardare una 250 domani, giusto per togliere la curiosita'...)

My guess is that American meatballs most likely derived from the area around Teramo. They are, along with scrippelle 'mbuse, mazzarelle, le virtu', spaghetti alla chitarra, and several other dishes, specialties of this part of Italy. I can assure you that meatballs are an everyday dish in Abruzzo as well as in those parts of the world (e.g., southern New Jersey) where people from this region of Italy have emigrated.

Ok, that made me hungry!
You're a diet-killer

__________________

We went to this one place that had huge steaks. So we had baked potatoes, salad and huge steaks in Italy and the place was packed.
We were the only Americans. They cut the steaks and grilled them right there practically in front of you. Meat balls and spaghetti
is not getting it. Meat balls and spaghetti if they did have it would only be for the first course. The spaghetti that is served
just has a sauce on it but no meat balls.

Oh, they had horse steaks too.

Would that have been bistecca alla Fiorentina ?

I remain confused. I have eaten spaghetti with meatballs in Italy on each and every visit (at least two dozen and counting) over the past 20 years or more. I have also sampled a good number of items (pig snout, eel embryos, etc) which I thought were pretty weird. I am sure that there are many more dishes which I have not yet experienced. I posted a picture spaghetti with meatballs which I assure you was taken in Italy. If one would take the time to do a google search then he/she will find several Italian websites with spaghetti with meatballs. On a personal note I try my best to respect others' opinions. But facts do exist. Just because a given person has never traveled to Italy and had this experience, this in no way proves it spaghetti with meatballs are not served in Italy. Maybe it is time to put my money (? meatballs) where my mouth is. I challenge anyone to join me in Italy (I will be there again April 2010) for a lunch or dinner in a restaurant in or around Teramo in Abruzzo. I will bet you, I will guarantee you, cosi via, mangeremo pasta alla chitarra con polpettine (basically sphaghetti with small meatballs). If we search around a bit we will find larger meatballs (polpettone). As an aside, I would encourage everyone to get away from the touristy areas of Venice, Florence and Rome thereby providing them with new and probably enlightening experiences. They might just find that Italy has a greater variety of things to offer than they had previously imagined. Even spaghetti with meatballs. Basta.

Perhaps this information will clear up the subject (and reduce the tensions?). It is from an article posted on About.com:

"When I was little, I always wondered why I never encountered the spaghetti with meatballs that I enjoyed in the US when I was in Italy. It's because Italian pasta sauces are as regional as anything else, and I was in Tuscany, whereas pasta with meatballs is from the south, as were most of the Italian immigrants who came to the US. "

Another article on About.com states:

"Maccheroni alla chitarra are a specialty from the Abruzzo region, and are made by rolling a sheet of pasta slightly thicker than normal (dime-and-a-half thick) and forcing it through the chitarra, a set of closely strung strings that looks very much like the strings of a guitar."

The clue was when you mentioned meeting in Abruzzo. Most of my travels have been in Lazio, Umbria, Toscano, Lombardia and the Veneto. In eight visits since 2001, staying largely in small commune, I have not encountered any form of spaghetti and meatballs. Apparently, I've been going to the wrong places.

We have 5 or 6 or more pot lucks every year and my friend Vicenzo
who is from Sicily always brings meat balls but no sphaghetti.
Must be a southern thing.