A fun Disney movie night recipe, these Lady and the Tramp-inspired Spaghetti & Meatball Cookies are inspired by the Spaghetti & Meatball cupcakes found at Mama Mia Italian Ristorante at Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World.

Lady & the Tramp Cookies

Everyone knows I love a good theme, and our family movie nights have become a fun excuse to experiment with new recipes and get a bit “out there” with my dessert ideas.

I realized on our last DisneyWorld trip that my daughter had never seen Lady and the Tramp! It’s one of my favorites and I don’t know how I had neglected imparting this seminal piece of animation history, but obviously, I had to rectify the situation right away and plan a themed movie night!

The menu for a Lady and the Tramp movie night pretty much plans itself – you cannot go wrong with that classic scene where Tony serenades the two pups with “Belle Notte” and the Tramp uses his nose to push that last meatball over to Lady – and they sneak in their first kiss by eating the same strand of spaghetti.

Add in a salad, some bread sticks or homemade garlic bread, and you’re practically set – only, what’s a Disney movie night without dessert?

On our first trip to DisneyWorld, we had lunch at Mamma Mia Italian Ristorante at Hollywood Studios and we had to order their Meatball Cupcakes to go. While they used a chocolate sprinkle-covered truffle for their meatballs, I decided to use one of my favorites instead: Ferraro Rocher chocolates. Feel free to use whichever chocolate truffle or circular chocolate you prefer when making this recipe for your family.

(Goodness, I could just eat up that cupcake and my 4 year old in that picture! She’s a giant 6 year old now…)

The Hollywood Studios cupcake was pretty subtle in their theming, and I decided to go a little bit further, adding some frosting spaghetti and tomato sauce to our cookies. This is super simple to do – the kids can even help swirl on the mess of “spaghetti frosting,” but if you run out of time or want an even simpler recipe, you can just top the cookie with your favorite frosting and stick the truffle on top for a “Meatball Cookie” sans spaghetti.

Either way, you’re in for a delicious and fun dessert recipe for your family movie night! (They would also be cute for April Fool’s treats!)

Ingredients for Spaghetti & Meatballs Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted sweet cream butter
• 1 1/2 cup powder sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

For the Royal icing:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• Red and ivory food coloring
• 1 package of Ferrero Rochers

Tip: you can always use buttercream instead of the royal icing, the frosting will just remain softer. Also, feel free to use premade sugar cookie dough!

Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful

• 1 circle cookie cutter
• 1 cookie sheet fitted with parchment paper
• 3 disposable piping bag fitted with a number 2 tip
• 1 squeeze bottle

How to Make Spaghetti & Meatballs Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Using a standing mixer, cream together the butter, powder sugar, vanilla and egg together until creamy and combined.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cream of tarter and baking soda

Gradually mix in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until combined and a dough forms

Once the dough is formed, sprinkle about 3 tablespoons of flour onto a cutting board and place the dough onto the cutting board.

Sprinkle some flour onto the cookie dough and roll out the dough to about 2 inches thick

Cut out your cookies and place onto the cookie sheet

Bake your cookies for about 8 minutes

Let them cool completely

Royal icing directions:

Using a standing mixer, combine all ingredients and mix on medium to high speed until thick and stiff with peaks about 6-7 minutes

If your icing looks like yellow soup, add another cup of powder sugar

Once your icing is made, Scoop some white icing into one piping bag and set aside

Scoop some more icing into a bowl and add in about 2 – 3 tbsp water and mix until combined.

Pour into squeeze bottle and set aside

Scoop some icing, about 3/4 up, into a bowl and add ivory food coloring, about 2-3 drops and mix until combined. You want a light ivory color comparable to pasta noodles

Scoop the ivory icing into piping bag

Using the remaining icing, add in red food coloring and mix until combined. Add in a few more drops of red food coloring to get the shade you want.

Scoop a small amount into the piping bag and set aside

Using the white icing in the piping bag, pipe a line around the edges of the cookies and fill in with the white squeeze bottles.

Let cookies completely harden over night before adding your pasta

Once your cookies are dry, using the ivory piping bag pipe out noodles by holding the piping bag 1 inch up from the cookie that way when you squeeze the bag, the icing will come out in strings and fall onto the cookie. Make sure to move your hand to position where you want the noodles to be.

Let the first layer of noodles dry for an hour before putting on the second layer

Once the second layer is one wait another hour.

Once that hour is up, pipe out a glob of red icing onto the pasta for pasta sauce

Cut your chocolate in half and place into the middle of the red icing for your meatballs

Let cookies dry for another hour before enjoying!

 

Pin this cute Disney-inspired Cookie recipe:

Grab your free printable for our Lady & the Tramp inspired Spaghetti and Meatballs Cookie recipe:

These Lady and the Tramp-inspired Spaghetti & Meatball Cookie recipe is a fun addition to a movie night (whether Lady and the Tramp or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) – but would also be a great dessert for any pasta night!

For a delicious pasta recipe to pair these cute cookies with, check out our Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Pasta Recipe or our Instant Pot Taco Pasta Recipe. (And don’t forget to pair it with some Pull-apart Garlic Bread!)