Say lasagna and think of Italy: kitchens filled with the scent of sauce and fried food, tables set for Sunday lunches that never seem to end. It's a dish with a thousand variations and stories — a milestone of Italian cooking that every grandmother claims to make best.
A dish with deep roots
Where does lasagna come from?
Lasagna carries us through the whole history of Italian pasta. Its origins go back to ancient Rome, where the terms "laganon" and "laganum" described a thin sheet made from a wheat flour dough, cooked in the oven or directly over the fire — only a distant cousin of today's lasagna, really just pasta and meat cooked together in bulk. In the Middle Ages this style of lasagna spread so widely that poets wrote about it. It only reached Emilia Romagna later, with the arrival of egg pasta in Northern Italy during the Renaissance: today's lasagna was born there, completed a century later by the arrival of tomato sauce from Naples. The Emilian recipe used béchamel and mixed meat, while the Neapolitan version replaced them with ricotta, combined with puff pastry or egg pasta, meat sauce, meatballs and mozzarella. Every region has its own variant: in mountain areas, meat sauce is often replaced by mushrooms.
The dough
How to make lasagna sheets at home
The original recipe never states the exact proportions of flour, water and yeast, but you can use a pizza-dough style recipe with about 400 grams of white flour, 30 cl of water, 9 grams of salt and 20 grams of fresh yeast.
Make the dough
Dilute the yeast in the water, then mix with the flour to get a soft dough. Let it rest for an hour, covered with a cloth and away from drafts.
Roll and cut
Spread the dough on a generously floured board and work it until it's about one and a half millimeters thick, then cut it into squares of at least 4 or 5 cm a side.
Cook the sheets
Drop the squares into boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Once cooked, they should be al dente, with no taste of raw flour left.
Layer and serve
Layer the sheets in a pan with plenty of Parmigiano and a few minced "good spices" — pepper and cinnamon. A fourteenth-century recipe book advises eating them with a pointed wooden stick, which debunks the idea that medieval tables used only hands, and hints at the fork's later return to aristocratic tables.
On our menu
Lasagna at Tenuta Torciano
Lasagna is a typical Italian dish, loved all over the world. Once you've learned the method, you can dress it with different types of sauces. Lasagna is also one of the typical dishes of Tenuta Torciano, and you'll find it in our tasting menus in different versions: from the traditional "mum" Lasagna with Truffle, also on the wine school menu, to Lasagna alla Bolognese, asparagus and saffron, salmon lasagna and the white version with zucchini and cooked ham.
Food and wine
What to drink with lasagna
Pairing food and wine is at the heart of our wine tastings. We suggest enjoying these pasta dishes with excellent red wines: a bottle of Chianti is perfect with a plate of Lasagna Bolognese, while a Chianti Classico Riserva is the right choice for dishes with bolder flavors, such as lasagna with truffle, mushrooms, or asparagus and saffron. Our Super Tuscan I.G.T. 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.
See all our recipesFAQ
With what ingredients is the lasagna dough made at home?
You can use about 400 grams of white flour, 30 cl of water, 9 grams of salt and 20 grams of fresh yeast.
How long should the dough rest before rolling it out?
The dough should rest for an hour, covered with a cloth and away from drafts.
How long are the pasta squares boiled?
The squares are dropped into boiling salted water for about 3 minutes, until al dente.
What versions of lasagna are on the menu at Tenuta Torciano?
The tasting menus include the traditional "mum" Lasagna with Truffle, also on the wine school menu, Lasagna alla Bolognese, asparagus and saffron, salmon lasagna, and the white version with zucchini and cooked ham.
What wine pairs well with lasagna?
Chianti is perfect with Lasagna Bolognese, while Chianti Classico Riserva suits bolder flavors like truffle, mushrooms, or asparagus and saffron; the Super Tuscan I.G.T. Baldassarre, Cavaliere and Bartolomeo also pair beautifully.
