Italian pasta, as opposed to its sauce, is the star of a pasta dish in Italy. Sauces that lightly dress the primi piatti are generally simple with few ingredients. Italian-American dishes are often the opposite and tend to have more meat than Italian food.ou sit, order your salad, followed by Italian-American spaghetti and meatballs or linguini Alfredo brought out on large family-style serving plates, and accompanied by a bottle of Chianti perhaps. Now consider scenario number two: You enter the Italian restaurant Trattoria da Luigi in Rome.