Could a painting hanging on the wall of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) hold the key to a culinary mystery? One of the most popular comfort foods in the world is spaghetti and meatballs. If you read food blogs, you may have heard that this dish did not originate on Italian soil. Many celebrity chefs, Italian-American chefs, and food writers claim that it was invented by Italian immigrants in the United States. These sources say the immigrants tried to re-create dishes from home and, finding an abundance of ground beef here, made gargantuan meatballs to top their pasta.

But I believe spaghetti and meatballs were served together on the same plate in Italy long before the Italians set foot here in the late 1800s. Why? Because immigrants like my grandparents and great-grandparents brought their family recipes with them. Unfortunately, this sort of evidence is dismissed as merely anecdotal. As a lawyer as well as a food writer, I take all evidence into account.