Food fact: Lasagne isn’t Italian in origin
How many of you love pasta? Raise your hands! Well, we assume all of you did. After all, pasta is a kind of comfort dish, an instant mood-lifter, that satiates the taste buds and the stomach simultaneously.
Now, what if we told you that there’s a baked dish comprising not one, but different layers of pasta combined with various other ingredients? Are you already tempted to try it out? Well, chances are, you have already tasted it – you know it as lasagne. Primarily, it comes with veggies, meat, and cheese. But contrary to what you may have been made to believe, it isn’t Italian in origin like pasta. Eager to know about the real origin story of lasagne? Read on!
Lasagne originated in ancient Greece
Yes, you heard us right. In ancient Greece, there was a popular dish called laganon which was nothing but the first ever pasta made from wide and flat sheets of dough cut into thin strips. Food historians believe that it was this particular dish that eventually led to the birth of lasagne. However, the original lasagne was very different from today’s version as it wasn’t Italianised till then. In fact, it only comprised of the various layers of pasta and white sauce with chopped tomatoes, minus the Italian ingredients such as meat and cheese. In addition, lasagne was also originally made in a container called ‘lasanum’. It is the Latin term for ‘pasta pot.’ Today, Italians use this pot to serve the dish in. Interestingly, the term ‘lasagne’ was derived out of Old Greek ‘lasavov’ meaning ‘twisted macaroni.’
How did lasagne end up in Italy?
Well, if you swipe through the pages of world history, you will see that the ancient Romans invaded Greece around 146 B.C. When they came back, many ancient Greeks also immigrated to Italy and first settled in the Naples region around 2nd B.C. This is when the dish laganon also crossed countries and ended up in Italy. Soon, Italians took a liking to it as it was similar to their pasta and even better to some extent. This is when they upgraded the dish with meat, fish and cow’s belly and put their favourite cheese and seasonings (garlic, basil, oregano etc) in it. Guess what they called it? Lasagne Patina. They even removed the tomato slices and put it in the sauce! This was in the Middle Ages (14th century A.D.).
Today, there are different kinds of lasagne, thanks to the Italians. For instance, the traditional lasagne of Naples is called Lasagne di Carnevale that comprises of local meat sausage, fried meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, ricotta or mozzarella cheese and Neapolitan Ragu.
Another popular example is Lasagne al Forno that is made of thick Ragu, white sauce, wine, onion, oregano, green sheets of pasta made with spinach, and ricotta or mozzarella. This is popular in the region Emilia-Romagna. As for the Lasagna al Sangue or the bloody lasagne, it is native to the Piedmont region and owes its name to the blood of slaughtered pig that is mixed in the sauce. Yucky, isn’t it?
What’s interesting is that the multi-layered lasagne that we know and love today was born lot later in the 19th century in the hands of famous Italian celebrity chef, the Bologna-based Francesco Zambrini.