Northern Italian vs. Southern Italian food

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Judging from the poll results, we really don't know what northern Italian cuisine is in the US.

I guess there is minestrone, but that will never win against spaghetti and meatballs.

Outside of Italy it's the northern dishes that is far better known: panettone (which my spell checker has underlined) and cotoletta alla milanese (ditto...) are the stereotype of Italian food in South America, while in Europe, it's lasagne bolognese (ditto...). Italian restaurants (outside of the northeast, and even that's doubtful) don't even make that stuff here.