This most quintessential of Italian-American culinary inventions—meatballs were unthinkable in Italy, where ground meat was a rarity—is available at dozens of ma-and-pa red-sauced restaurants in Brooklyn, but the best version we tasted this past year came from Casa Calamari, a Sicilian establishment that specializes in seafood, oil-glossed vegetables, and pastas. The spaghetti is cooked a little beyond al dente, the tomato sauce is on the sweet side, and the meatballs approach softballs in size. Wear your shades when you go, because the joint is very well-lit.