Apart from social media, are very few the things that are able to unify people’s judgement and perception worldwide as the commonly shared idea that Lasagna, is perhaps one of the most fulfilling and enduring pleasures we could ever experience in this life.
It doesn’t matter where you are, what pasta you are suing and if you have put too much of besciamella cheese: lasagna is synonym of joy, family and exceptional main course.
However, after almost 6 centuries from its first mention, there is an endlessly ongoing debate on where the Lasagna was geographically conceived.
Well, the truth is far then straightforward. Already served in the ancient Greece, Lasagne owes its name to “Laganon” which in ancient Greek used to indicate square sheet made of grain to be boiled in the water in order to be eaten.
Obviously, it was a quite different dish from the one you can eat today, anywhere in the world.
Romans also included this food quite often in their alimentary habits as they used to cook it in huge pots made of clay so to preserve the food also for the following days.
Despite the ever present “Bolognese” definition, the modern idea of lasagne was first seen in Neaples where the recepee made its appearance in the 14th centuries.
Back then the recepee did not contain tomatoes which will have been discovered shortly after and imported from America.
Subsequently, in the 1880, the first coockbook ever written proposed a new version of the Lasagna, this time enriched with tomato sauce: the book was written by a Neapolitan chef, the “Monzu’” Vincenzo Corrado, which reports the very first reference of lasagna as we know it today.
Then why it is so common to hear Bolognese, when referring to Lasagna?
Bologna is the city whose merit was to have transformed the Lasagna into a global culinary sensation; this dish originally was intended for the lower class in Neaples so simple to prepare, very affordable and high in calories.
Once the recipe started sprawling from Neaples all over Italy, it reached Bologna where the dish was incredibly well acclaimed and proposed to the upper class.
Bologna then started proposing the Lasagna as quintessential in what were at the time the first kind of restaurants, which gained immediately global reputation for serving so many incredible foods, especially lasagna.
Vegan, Vegetarian, made with Fish, Broccoli, or especially with eggs and salami, the Lasagna boasts a global status in the food world and surely whenever in Italy make sure your staff yourself to death as a Lasagna is forever, even better than any diamond.
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