Say lasagna and everyone thinks of Italy: kitchens filled with the scent of simmering sauce, tables laid for Sunday lunch, family meals that stretch on for hours. It's a dish with a thousand variations and just as many stories, and every Italian grandmother swears she holds the one true recipe.
Storia
From ancient Rome to today's lasagna
Lasagna is a dish that runs through the whole of Italy's culinary history. It traces back to ancient Rome, where "laganon" and "laganum" named a thin sheet of dough made from wheat flour, cooked in the oven or over an open fire — only a distant cousin of the lasagna we know, really just pasta and meat cooked together. Medieval poets mentioned this early version often, a sign of how widespread it had already become. It reached Emilia-Romagna only later, once egg pasta arrived in Northern Italy during the Renaissance: that's where today's lasagna was born, completed a century afterward when tomato sauce arrived from Naples. The Emilian recipe uses béchamel and mixed meats; the Neapolitan version swaps those for ricotta, layered with puff pastry or egg pasta, meat sauce, meatballs and mozzarella. Every region has shaped its own version — in the mountains, for instance, mushrooms often replace the meat sauce.
Ricetta
The dough, step by step
Torciano's original recipe doesn't give exact proportions of flour, water and yeast, but a pizza-dough ratio works well: about 400 grams of white flour, 30 cl of water, 9 grams of salt and 20 grams of fresh yeast.
Dissolve the yeast in the water, then work it into the flour until the dough turns soft. Let it rest for an hour, covered with a cloth and away from drafts. Roll it out on a well-floured board until it's about a millimetre and a half thick, then cut it into squares of at least 4 or 5 cm a side. Drop the squares into boiling salted water for about 3 minutes: cooked al dente, the raw taste of the flour disappears. Layer the sheets in a pan with plenty of Parmigiano and a little ground pepper and cinnamon — fourteenth-century recipe books suggest eating them with a pointed wooden stick, proof that medieval tables weren't quite as fork-free as we imagine.
Da Torciano
Lasagna at Tenuta Torciano
Lasagna is loved the world over, and once you've learned the technique, you can dress it with different types of sauces. It's one of the signature dishes at Tenuta Torciano, served in our tasting menus in several versions: the traditional mum's Lasagna with Truffle, also on the wine school menu, Lasagna alla Bolognese, asparagus and saffron lasagna, salmon lasagna, and a white version with zucchini and cooked ham.
Abbinamento
Pairing lasagna with wine
Matching food and wine is at the heart of our wine tastings, and lasagna is no exception: we suggest tasting it alongside good red wines. A bottle of Chianti is perfect with a plate of Lasagna Bolognese, while a Chianti Classico Riserva suits bolder flavours such as lasagna with truffle, mushrooms or asparagus and saffron. Our Super Tuscan I.G.T. wines — Baldassarre, Cavaliere and Bartolomeo — also pair beautifully with these first courses.
Discover all our recipes to pair with the best wines directly on the Tenuta Torciano site.
FAQ
How long should lasagna sheets cook?
Drop the squares into boiling salted water for about 3 minutes until cooked al dente. This ensures the raw taste of the flour disappears.
What ingredients are needed for lasagna dough?
A pizza-dough ratio works well, using about 400 grams of white flour, 30 cl of water, 9 grams of salt, and 20 grams of fresh yeast. The dough should then rest for an hour, covered with a cloth.
What wine pairs well with Lasagna Bolognese?
A bottle of Chianti is perfect with a plate of Lasagna Bolognese. For bolder flavors, a Chianti Classico Riserva suits lasagna with truffle, mushrooms, or asparagus and saffron.
When did lasagna become a dish in Emilia-Romagna?
Lasagna reached Emilia-Romagna during the Renaissance when egg pasta arrived in Northern Italy. The modern Emilian recipe was completed a century afterward when tomato sauce arrived from Naples.
