Fried fish and spaghetti is a Deep South staple, and through the Great Migration, it became a Midwestern delicacy. Fried fish in this pairing is usually catfish that has been crusted with cornmeal and fried until golden and crispy. The spaghetti for this dish is traditional, typically meatless, and features a tomato-based sauce with Italian herbs and seasonings, with spaghetti noodles as the pasta of choice. Both are served piping hot; some people prefer this meal accompanied by lemon wedges, hot sauce, tartar sauce, or even white bread.
Seafood was and is an integral part of the diets of West Africans, and many African Americans in the United States descend from West Africans. The reliance on and love of seafood crossed the Middle Passage along with the enslaved. They received very meager and poor diets from slave holders. Enslaved people could catch fish on their own time. So, fish was an essential way for them to supplement their diets.
A fish fry is a special event in the Black community. A fish fry was a time when the community could gather and fellowship. They were and are still quite the social event for churches, families, and even fundraising. Traditionally, fish frys were held on Friday and Saturday nights. Catfish became the go-to fish because it was easy to obtain and transport nationwide, alongside other popular fish like whiting, tilapia, carp, porgy, and buffalo fish.
Italian men talking on Decatur Street in New Orleans, 1938. New Orleans Italian residents were able to make a home in the city and state.
Courtesy of Library of Congress.
A postcard depicting an Italian fruit stand in New Orleans, Louisiana. Italians moved to New Orleans and began to open businesses and acclimate themselves to their new home.
Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection.
Spaghetti arrived in the South through Italian immigration in the late 19th century. In the 1870s, African Americans were migrating from Louisiana to the northern states in search of better opportunities. This exodus created a major labor shortage that needed to be filled; parishes that produce sugar were the most affected. By the mid-1880s, the Louisiana Sugar Planters Association began seeking alternative laborers. The Association started to circulate information about labor needs in Sicily and southern Italy and even sent agents to encourage Italians to immigrate to Louisiana for work and opportunities. Between 1870 and 1920, roughly 300,000 Italians (mostly Sicilians) immigrated to New Orleans. Italians then worked as merchants, farmers, and laborers throughout the Gulf Coast of the United States in several coastal Mississippi cities. Italians brought their love of pasta and their recipes with them to the United States.
The pairing of fried fish and spaghetti emerged as Italian and Greek restaurants began to appear, offering pasta dishes like spaghetti on their menus. African Americans likely first encountered the dish at these restaurants and other places where they worked and had to prepare it. The dish made its way to their homes. By the late 1920s, it appeared in African American cookbooks. It’s unclear why or how spaghetti became a side dish for fried fish, but the combination gained immense popularity in the Mississippi Delta.
The Arthur family left Texas after two of their sons were lynched. These were the types of living conditions and experiences that African Americans were escaping by traveling to the North and West.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
This map shows popular pathways, due to available transportation, that African Americans took during the Great Migration. It illustrates how African Americans moved to other regions of the country and took their recipes and foodways with them.
Courtesy of Dan Kopf and Pricenomics.
Fried fish and spaghetti as a pairing is still a popular combination in the Deep South and Midwest because of migration. The Great Migration was a movement of roughly 6 million African Americans from the South to the North and West between 1910 and 1970. The migration of Black Americans from the South to other parts of the country, such as the Midwest, introduced this combination to new regions. There are people in Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, who enjoy fried fish and spaghetti.
There are restaurants that serve the dynamic duo, and the dish is easy enough for those who enjoy cooking at home. Morrison’s Soulfood in Chicago, Illinois, serves fried catfish and spaghetti, and Breakfast at Barney’s in Atlanta, Georgia, serves fried catfish and spicy spaghetti. Home cooks make a delicious pot of spaghetti and fry some catfish until it is golden brown.
Fried Catfish & Spicy Spaghetti at Breakfast at Barney’s in Atlanta.
Courtesy of Breakfast at Barney’s.
