Lasagna

Lasagna (, also , ; plural lasagne, ) 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  mentioning the dish alongside gnocchi:

In 1284, Salimbene di Adam's  similarly referenced  (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.Liber de Coquina, De lasanis. Gloning. This early version differed from the modern dish, consisting of fermented dough flattened into sheets, boiled, and seasoned with cheese and spices.Serventi, Pasta: the story of a universal food, Columbia UP, 2012, p. 235. 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  and sciabò.Oretta Zanini De Vita. Encyclopedia of Pasta. University of California Press, 2019. p. 148. . While traditional shapes were often square, modern commercial pasta is typically long and narrow, a style called .De Vita (2019). p. 150. 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  and the larger lasagnotte, the latter of which is known as cappellasci in Liguria.Gaetano Frisoni. Dizionario moderno genovese-italiano. A. Donath, 1910. p. 65.

 Dish 
Italian regional variations were traditionally prepared for religious festivals, often marking rare occasions for meat consumption. The Neapolitan  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, , is a Christmas dish featuring capon broth, veal meatballs, and prosciutto.

The most internationally recognized version, , 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,  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 . In modern Italy, national law mandates that all commercially sold dried lasagna be produced from durum wheat semolina.

Gallery

 References 

Category:Italian food
Category:Pasta
Category:Neapolitan cuisine