Lasagne: history and origins of the worldwide most loved Italian dish

The epic journey of the lasagna started in the shape of a sort of baked bread filled with meat to the layered masterpiece delighting our Sunday lunches.

It's hard to trace the official paternity of this dish: it's too widespread and has too many variations.

In fact, the ancient Romans already cooked something similar to today's lasagna and called it "laganum" (taken from the Greeks who called it "laganon"): the early version was made by rectangular sheets of wheat flour filled with meat. We know this thanks to De re coquinaria, a culinary document that has enlightened us on Rome's food past.

Cheese peeps out in the recipe towards the 14th century in the codification of a Neapolitan recipe book of the Angevin Court (the Liber de Coquina), while the tomato appears since 1881. The presence of stringy cheeses in southern and central Italy suggests that the idea of ​​filling the sheets - perhaps with mozzarella - came from this area.

We hear about the amazing idea of ​​layered lasagna in a book from 1863 by the Emilian statesman Francesco Zambrini, who studies medieval cuisine: we are not too far from the current lasagna!

Something is still missing: the sheet of pasta mixed with spinach with its classic green colour: Paolo Monelli talks about it in 1935 in his "The wandering glutton" and that is enough to fix Bolognese lasagna in the Italian collective memory.

The three main actors in the lasagna bolognese recipe are ragù, béchamel and egg pasta sheets.

You know, a good chef needs to also please the eye. So in the original recipe the sheets of egg pasta with their classic golden colour are alternated with the green ones, where the sheet is mixed with spinach.

The rich, slow-cooked ragù sauce is the actual heart of the recipe: tradition has it that both minced beef and pork are used, the latter in the form of pancetta. The tomato sauce is cooked for a long time in order to get a thick sauce.

The flavours are held together by the bechamel sauce - very easy to make at home - with the addition of nutmeg, granting overall warmth and complexity to the sauce.

The succulent parmesan crust covering the last layer is really the icing on the cake.

In Italy there are many variations of the Bolognese lasagna recipe: here’s a few.

The Neapolitan version of the lasagna was probably born in the royal court and is a real feast of flavours. In this variant, local chefs don’t use egg pasta; they also add the famous dairy products from Campania such as mozzarella, ricotta and provola cheese. But that’s not all! Among the sheets you can find hard-boiled eggs and delicious meatballs. 

Central Italy lives its own lasagna dream.

In the Marche region you can taste vincisgrassi, very similar to their bolognese brother, but also boosting chicken giblets and spices. Gourmets also add truffles for an even stronger flavour.

Abruzzo also has its own variation called sagnitelle, which does not include egg pasta (just regular pasta made only of flour and water) and often does not have béchamel as a binding, creamy agent.

Finally, in Sicily the local lasagna is also stuffed with peas and ham, with ricotta replacing the béchamel, while in Veneto it’s common the use of the bitter red radicchio from Treviso to replace the ragù sauce.

Here is the "official" recipe for traditional Lasagna alla Bolognese for 4 people.

For the béchamel (also called "white sauce"):

- Flour 00 (80g)

- Butter (60g)

 - Whole milk (1 litre)

- Salt and nutmeg to taste

For the ragù:

- Minced beef (400g)

- Pancetta (around 100g)

- Celery, onion and carrot for the sauté

- Sieved tomato passata (750g)

- Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

- Grated Parmigiano Reggiano

If you don’t want to prepare the lasagna sheets at home, just buy at least a pack of egg lasagna sheets weighing at least 400g.

The recipe is pretty simple.

For the béchamel, start by preparing the roux: melt the butter over low heat and add the flour, stirring rapidly, until you obtain a “consistent” mixture with no lumps. At this point, just add the cold milk and mix until you get a thick mixture, without letting it boil.

For the final touch, just add salt and nutmeg to taste and… voilà, the bechamel is ready.

The preparation of the ragù takes a bit longer.

Start by frying the carrots, celery and onion cut into small pieces in the oil. When the soffritto is ready, add the minced meat and pancetta and cook for at least 15 minutes.

Add the tomato passata and cook for at least 45 minutes over medium heat, until the desired density is reached. Salt and pepper to taste.

At this point you need to put together your masterpiece.

Take a baking dish and start spreading a layer of béchamel, followed by a layer of ragù and one of pasta sheets.

Once you have finished alternating the layers, cover everything with a generous sprinkling of grated Parmesan, which will crunch marvellously in the oven.

Put the dish in the oven and cook for at least 30 minutes at about 180°C.

Take out the dish and leave to cool for a few minutes, garnish your lasagna with a few basil leaves and serve: buon appetito!