Editing Lasagna (section)

==Name==
As with most other [[List of pasta|types of pasta]], the Italian word is a plural form: ''lasagne'' meaning more than one sheet of ''lasagna'', although, in many other languages, a derivative of the singular word ''lasagna'' is used for the popular baked pasta dish. When referring to the baked dish, regional usage in Italy favours the plural form ''lasagne'' in the north of the country and the singular ''lasagna'' in the south.<ref name="buccini">{{cite book |last=Buccini |first=A. F. |chapter=Lasagne, a layered history |editor-last=McWilliams |title=Wrapped & Stuffed Foods: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery |year=2013 |page=95 |publisher=Prospect |isbn=9781903018996 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MD0QDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT95 |quote=... in referring to baked versions of the dish, regional usage in Italy favours the plural form ''lasagne'' in the north and the singular form ''lasagna'' in the south; from the former usage stems the British use of 'lasagne' and from the latter the American 'lasagna'. Neither usage can be considered 'more correct' ....}}</ref> The former plural usage has influenced the usual spelling found in [[British English]], while the southern Italian singular usage has influenced the spelling often used in [[American English]].<ref name="buccini" />  Both ''lasagna'' and ''lasagne'' are used as singular [[Mass noun|non-count]] (uncountable) nouns in English.<ref>Laurie Bauer, Rochelle Lieber and Ingo Plag. ''The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology''. Oxford University Press, 2015. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EXlYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 p. 139.] {{ISBN|9780198747062}}.</ref>

=== Etymology ===
In [[ancient Rome]], there was a dish similar to a traditional lasagna called {{lang|la|lasana}} or ''{{lang|la|lasanum}}'' ([[Latin]] for 'container' or 'pot') described in the book ''[[Apicius|De re coquinaria]]'' by [[Marcus Gavius Apicius]],<ref>[http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_re_coquinaria_-_Liber_IV_-_Pandecter# ''De re coquinaria'']. Apicio.</ref> but the word could have a more ancient origin. The first theory is that ''lasagna'' comes from [[Greek language|Greek]] λάγανον (''[[Tracta (dough)|laganon]]''), a flat sheet of pasta dough cut into strips.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2361489 λάγανον], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dalby |first=Andrew |title=Food in the ancient world from A to Z |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=9780415232593 |location=London |oclc=892612150}}</ref><ref>"Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture", Eugene Newton Anderson, NYU Press, 2005.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Origins of pasta |url=http://www.pasta.go.it/origin.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722034648/http://www.pasta.go.it/origin.htm |archive-date=22 July 2011 |access-date=10 March 2017 |website=The Real Italian Pasta}}</ref> The word λαγάνα (''lagana'') is still used in Greek to mean a flat thin type of [[unleavened bread]] baked for the [[Clean Monday]] holiday.<ref>{{cite news |date=24 October 2022 |title=The history of lagana and its delicious secrets |url=https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/10/24/the-history-of-lagana/ |access-date=8 February 2025 |website=Greek City Times}}</ref>

Another theory is that the word lasagna comes from the Greek λάσανα (''lasana'') or λάσανον (''lasanon'') meaning '[[trivet]]', 'stand for a pot' or '[[chamber pot]]'.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2361998 λάσανα], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus.</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Muhlke |first=Christine |title=A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names |date=2 April 1997 |work=Cookbook Shelf:Book Review |url=http://www.salon.com/april97/food/cookbook970402.html |access-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808044555/http://www.salon.com/april97/food/cookbook970402.html |archive-date=8 August 2007 |url-status=dead |publisher=[[Salon.com]]}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=lasagna |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lasagna |access-date=10 March 2017 |work=Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary}}</ref> The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] borrowed the word as ''lasanum'', meaning 'cooking pot'.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Lewis |first1=Charlton T. |last2=Short |first2=Charles |title=lăsănum |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=lasanum |access-date=10 March 2017 |website=A Latin Dictionary |publisher=Perseus Digital Library}}</ref> The Italians used the word to refer to the cookware in which lasagna is made. Later the food took on the name of the serving dish.{{Cn|date=February 2025}}

Another proposed link or reference is the 14th-century English dish ''loseyn''<ref>{{cite web |title=Loseyns (Lozenges) |url=http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/mediaeval/fetch-recipe.php?rid=medi-loseyns |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121205061048/http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/mediaeval/fetch-recipe.php?rid=medi-loseyns |archive-date=5 December 2012 |access-date=24 March 2012 |work=Celtnet |publisher=Dyfed Lloyd Evans}}</ref> as described in ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'', a cookbook prepared by "the chief Master Cooks of [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]]",<ref>{{Cite book |author=John Rylands University Library of Manchester |author-link=John Rylands University Library of Manchester |title=Things sweet to taste: selections from the Forme of cury: a fourteenth-century cookery book in the John Rylands Library. |publisher=[[John Rylands Library]] |year=1996 |isbn=0863731341 |oclc=643512620 |quote=Thys fourme of cury ys compyled of þe mayster cokes of kyng Richard þe secund ... by assent of Maysters of physik and of phylosophye.}}</ref> which included English recipes as well as dishes influenced by Spanish, French, Italian, and Arab cuisines.<ref name="Bouchut">{{Cite web |last1=Bouchut |first1=Marie Josèphe Moncorgé |last2=Bailey |first2=Ian (trans.) |last3=Hunt |first3=Leah (trans.) |title=Oldcook: Forme of Cury and cookery books in English |url=http://www.oldcook.com/en/medieval-cookery_books_english |access-date=24 August 2016}}</ref> This dish has similarities to modern lasagna in both its recipe, which features a layering of ingredients between pasta sheets, and its name. An important difference is the lack of [[tomato]]es, which did not arrive in Europe until after [[Columbus's first voyage|Columbus reached the Americas]] in 1492. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a [[herbal]] written in 1544 by [[Pietro Andrea Mattioli]],<ref name="the tomato in America">{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Andrew F. |url=https://archive.org/details/tomatoinamericae00smit_0 |title=The tomato in America: early history, culture, and cookery |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1994 |isbn=1-57003-000-6 |location=Columbia, S.C, USA |url-access=registration}}</ref> while the earliest cookbook found with tomato recipes was published in [[Naples]] in 1692, but the author had obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.<ref name="the tomato in America" />