Spaghetti is a mess. So, why is it so romantic?

In an alley behind Tony’s Restaurant, two dogs share a heaping plate of spaghetti and meatballs under the moonlight. A red-checkered tablecloth. A bottle of Chianti turned makeshift candelabra. “Bella Notte” drifting through the night air. They lean in for a single strand of pasta — and accidentally kiss.

The now-iconic scene, notably from Walt Disney’s 1955 animated classic “Lady and the Tramp,” remains one of the most timeless cinematic moments of romance, often referenced like clockwork every Valentine’s Day. But most importantly — or, rather, interestingly — is its impact on food, transforming the humble spaghetti and meatballs into a grand act of intimacy.

In a 2015 interview with Yahoo, former Disney studio archivist Steven Vagnini shared that Disney himself scrapped the pasta scene from the film’s first storyboards before directing animator Frank Thomas changed his mind: “Walt wasn’t convinced that that would be a very clean-cut scene. As you can imagine, if you have two pets and they eat a plate of spaghetti, it’s hard to envision that being too graceful.”

Spaghetti is the kind of dish you’d be extra cautious of eating when wearing all white — or the kind of dish that parents may think twice about before giving it to their little kiddies. From the 17th to 19th centuries, spaghetti was a popular street food in Naples, typically enjoyed with one’s bare hands in large fistfuls. Munching on long strands of noodles (whether with or without any utensils), with bright red sauce dribbling down one’s chin, isn’t really the ideal vision of budding romance.

Disney’s initial skepticism and the scene’s sheer impact on food both beg the question: How did one of the messiest foods imaginable become shorthand for romance?

Ian MacAllen, author of “Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American,” points to history. Prior to “Lady and the Tramp,” spaghetti appeared in entertainment as plain, white pasta and was utilized as a comedic prop. In Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 comedy-drama film “City Lights,” a forkful of spaghetti gets tangled with and mistakenly eaten alongside a long party streamer. And in a 1949 short film starring The Three Stooges, a bowl of spaghetti falls on a restaurant patron’s head. The spaghetti is then cut with a pair of scissors, making it seem as though the patron is wearing a wig made out of pasta.

“By the 1950’s, everyone in America was eating spaghetti with meatballs — and before that too,” MacAllen says.

Its romantic connotations, however, were believed to have been influenced by the dining culture of the early 1900s. A wave of Italian immigrants brought with them a new cuisine. Those who settled in populous cities, like New York and Chicago, even opened up their living rooms to serve home-cooked pasta and meals to support their local community.

Such living room restaurants also attracted an unlikely crowd: young people. “I would call them the hipsters of their time,” MacAllen says. “Young people were excited about the idea of having what was, at the time, seen as ‘ethnic’ food. There’s an element of adventure to it, kind of in the same way people chase down the hottest, trendiest restaurants today.”

“It also helps that Italian-American restaurants, from that time well into the 1950’s, were seen as an economical luxury,” MacAllen adds. Many of these restaurants had prix fixe menus that typically offered spaghetti, “because it was the primary shape that people were eating most of the time,” he explains.

“Spaghetti was at the forefront of adoption by America,” MacAllen continues. Compared to the shorter and more delicate shapes (trofie, orecchiette and campanelle) or stuffed variations (tortellini and ravioli), spaghetti was easy to produce and easy for people to make in their homes.

There’s also the imagery of the idyllic Italian-American restaurant, MacAllen says. That look and feel was created by Italian immigrants as a “false idea of nostalgia” when they were establishing their businesses, he states.

“I think that’s part of the romantic element of [these restaurants]. The intimate space, candlelight — the fact that we can all picture what that looks like in our heads really speaks to the penetration of that element into culture.”

Salon Food’s Francesca Giangiulio, who has covered Italian cuisine and culture extensively, echoes similar sentiments, saying that the overall romanticization of spaghetti and meatballs “comes from the general romantic nature of Italians and Italian-Americans.”

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“We’re known for being very romantic, affectionate people,” she explains. “Dark restaurants, candlelight, tablecloth restaurants, Sinatra music, that whole vibe of the ‘Italian restaurant’ lends itself well to romance, and spaghetti and meatballs just happen to be the most iconic ‘Italian’ dish.”

Katie Vine of Dinners Done Quick touches on the beautiful vulnerability of eating spaghetti with your lover — and loved ones. “The red sauce makes you think of romance, the messiness is perfect for letting your guard down just a little, and it just makes you feel pure love and simple, genuine affection with no pretenses,” she writes via email.

Take a look at the menus of Italian-American restaurants nationwide, and you’re guaranteed that spaghetti and meatballs will be on them. In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, the dish appears as a staple main — spaghetti sans any meatballs may even appear as a standalone primo piatto (or first plate). Romano’s Macaroni Grill is offering Spaghetti & Meatballs w/ Pomodoro Sauce on its Feb. 14th menu. New York City’s La Pecora Bianca has both spaghetti and meatballs, albeit as separate courses. And Bar Primi on Bowery is offering a Lady & the Tramp Dinner that includes “the best spaghetti in town” and a complimentary Prosecco toast, according to the event’s Resy page.

Maybe spaghetti isn’t romantic because it’s graceful. Maybe it’s romantic because it isn’t. It’s a dish that demands you loosen up — lean in, risk the stain, share the strand.

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