Lasagna

What it is

Lasagna may be the oldest pasta shape with a paper trail. A flat dough sheet called lagana appears in Roman sources, and medieval Italian writers picked up the thread. A Bolognese text of 1282 mentions lasagne, and Salimbene di Adam's 1284 chronicle records lagana cum caseo, sheets eaten with cheese. The first real recipe arrives in the early 14th century Liber de Coquina, which describes fermented dough rolled thin, boiled, layered with cheese and spices, and eaten with a small pointed stick. De Cecco's copy claims the name took hold after the year 1000, an attribution rather than a documented fact. For centuries the dish meant boiled sheets dressed with cheese, spices, or broth. Tomato versions now treated as standard are a 19th century development. Two traditions share the modern shape: Emilia-Romagna, where thin egg dough is rolled by hand, and the Naples area, where dried semolina sheets with ruffled edges anchor the Carnival lasagne.

The root is contested. Etymonline and Wiktionary trace lasagna through Vulgar Latin lasania to Latin lasanum, a cooking pot, from Greek lasanon, a trivet or pot stand, while a rival derivation reported by Wikipedia points to Greek laganon, a flat sheet of dough cut into strips. Wiktionary records a minority theory from Arabic lawzinaj, an almond cake.