Lasagna

Lasagna
Baked Meat Lasagna
TypePasta
CoursePrimo or main
Place of originItaly
Region or stateCampania
Serving temperatureHot
Main ingredientsDurum wheat, ground meat, cheese
VariationsLasagnette

Lasagna (/ləˈzɑːnjə, -ˈsɑːn-/, also UK: /-ˈzæn-, -ˈsæn-/, Italian: [laˈzaɲɲa]; plural lasagne, Italian: [laˈzaɲɲe]) are a type of wide, flat pasta. Dishes made with this kind of pasta are sometimes also called lasagna. The most famous lasagna dish is an Italian dish called lasagne alla bolognese. Most lasagna dishes are made of stacked layers of this flat pasta alternating with fillings such as ragù (a meat sauce or tomato sauce) and other vegetables, cheese (which may include ricotta and parmesan), and seasonings and spices such as garlic, oregano and basil.

Origins and history

Lasagna originated in Italy during the Middle Ages, with the earliest written reference appearing in 1282. A Bolognese notary transcribed a ballad within the Memoriali Bolognesi mentioning the dish alongside gnocchi:

Giernosen le comadre trambedue a la festa,
de gliocch'e de lasagne se fén sette menestra

Both women went to the festival,
and had seven portions of gnocchi and lasagne

—Rime dei memoriali bolognesi —Zancani (2010), p. 146

In 1284, Salimbene di Adam's Cronica similarly referenced lagana cum caseo (lasagna with cheese). During this period, lasagna was considered a relatively expensive dish, as was common for most pasta.

The first formal recipe appears in the early 14th-century Liber de Coquina. This early version differed from the modern dish, consisting of fermented dough flattened into sheets, boiled, and seasoned with cheese and spices. Later 14th-century recipes suggested boiling the sheets in chicken broth and dressing them with chicken fat and cheese, or using walnuts for Lenten fasting versions.

Variations

Pasta

Mass-produced lasagna with ruffled edges is known by various names, including lasagna riccia and sciabò. While traditional shapes were often square, modern commercial pasta is typically long and narrow, a style called lasagna a nastro. Regional names vary across Italy; factory-produced sheets are called bardele in Veneto, while the Salento and Apulia regions use the terms sagne and lagana. Other variations include the narrower lasagnette and the larger lasagnotte, the latter of which is known as cappellasci in Liguria.

Dish

Lasagne al forno

Italian regional variations were traditionally prepared for religious festivals, often marking rare occasions for meat consumption. The Neapolitan lasagne di Carnevale is layered with sausage, fried meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, and cheeses like ricotta and mozzarella in a Neapolitan ragù. This southern style heavily influenced Italian-American cuisine, which often favors ricotta over the béchamel sauce used in northern Italy. Another southern version, lasagne alla pugliese, is a Christmas dish featuring capon broth, veal meatballs, and prosciutto.

The most internationally recognized version, lasagne al forno, originates from Emilia-Romagna. In Bologna, the dish consists of layers of egg pasta, a thick meat ragù, béchamel, and Parmesan cheese. Other northern variations include the spinach-based green pasta of Ferrara and the vincisgrassi of the Marche, which includes mushrooms and offal. In Genoa, lasagne alla genovese replaces meat sauce with pesto.

Historically, southern Italian dough was made from semolina and water, while northern regions used flour and eggs to create a thin sheet called sfoglia. In modern Italy, national law mandates that all commercially sold dried lasagna be produced from durum wheat semolina.

References

  1. ↑ "Lasagna". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 Zancani, Diego (2010). "Notes on the vocabulary of gastronomy in literary works from Boccaccio to Giulio Cesare Croce". The Italianist. 30 (sup2): 132–148. doi:10.1080/02614340.2010.11917482.
  3. ↑ Rebora, Giovanni (2001). Culture of the Fork: A Brief History of Everyday Food and Haute Cuisine in Europe. Columbia University Press. pp. 28. ISBN 0-231-12150-4.
  4. ↑ Liber de Coquina, De lasanis. Gloning.
  5. 1 2 Serventi, Pasta: the story of a universal food, Columbia UP, 2012, p. 235.
  6. 1 2 3 Oretta Zanini De Vita. Encyclopedia of Pasta. University of California Press, 2019. p. 148. ISBN 9780520322752.
  7. 1 2 De Vita (2019). p. 150.
  8. ↑ Gaetano Frisoni. Dizionario moderno genovese-italiano. A. Donath, 1910. p. 65.
  9. ↑ MacAllen, Ian (2022). Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 123.
  10. ↑ Del Conte, Anna (2013). Gastronomy of Italy. Pavilion. ISBN 978-1862059580.
  11. ↑ MacAllen, Ian (2022). Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 123.
  12. ↑ De Peppo, Marinella (1994). L' Arte della Cucina secondo la Tradizione napoletana. A. Mondadori. p. 119.
  13. ↑ Hess, Reinhardt; Sälzer, Sabine (1999). Regional Italian cuisine. Barron's. ISBN 9780764151590.
  14. ↑ Bugiali, Giuliano (1977). The Fine Art of Italian Cooking. Quadrangle. p. 190.
  15. ↑ Ayto, John (2012). The Diner's Dictionary. OUP. p. 388.
  16. ↑ Bugialli, Giuliano (1982). Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking. Simon and Schuster. p. 159.
  17. ↑ "Presidential Decree n. 187" (PDF). Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana. 117: 5. 9 February 2021.