We were eating lamb meatballs and rice the other day and mid-meal I started thinking about meatballs generally. One of my favourite meals is meatballs with spaghetti. If I buy beef meatballs, we will eat it with spaghetti. My husband (having Italian blood in him) makes a really mean beef meatball. He doesn’t often get the chance to make meatballs though. I usually buy them ready made from Sainsbury’s. I sometimes buy beef ones and sometimes lamb ones. If I buy lamb ones, we always eat it with rice. If I buy beef, we always eat it with pasta. Why is that? The Italians have sheep. They eat lamb. They eat pasta. Why do they not eat lamb and pasta? Or do they? Perhaps, I pondered, it is the British who do not eat lamb with pasta.
To research this never-before-contemplated-by-me topic I turned to my old friend Google. Googling ‘Can you eat lamb with pasta?’ brings up a few hits, not many of them of much use. The third hit reads: ‘What should I feed my dog?’ I think that goes some way to answering my question: ‘Do the Italians eat lamb with pasta?’ Perhaps the answer really is no.
Good enough for the dog?
But why? I love lamb and I love pasta. Why do the two not go together? Wikipedia claims that Italians love lamb. Do they serve it with pasta, it seems not so often. I need to find a real Italian to ask why and to verify whether this is true or not. My children’s great grandmother is Italian. Next time we visit her, I’m going to ask her.
Shaun the Sheep pasta blobs
There are some recipes for lamb with pasta on the internet, but not enough. Next time I buy lamb meatballs I’m going to serve it up with spaghetti and see what response I get from the Collins family. That is, after I give them toasted egg butties for breakfast.
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