Pasta Masters

‘LASAGNE is as Italian as blokes pinching girls’ bottoms, footballers diving for penalties and politicians insulting the Germans. Or is it?

The centre of Huddersfield

A report in this morning’s Telegraph suggests that it is, in fact, a British dish.

The world’s oldest recipe book, The Forme Of Cury, which was commissioned by King Richard II in 1390, describes a dish called loseyns (pronounced lasan) made from flat pasta and cheese.

It says: ‘Take good broth and do in an erthen pot. Take flour of paynedemayn and make erof past with ater and make erof thynne foyles as paper with a roller; drye harde and see it in broth.

‘Take chese ruayn grated and lay it in dishes with powder douce and lay eron loseyns isode as hole as you might and above powdour and chese; and so twyse or thryse & serue it forth.’

The Telegraph concedes that no mention is made of meat or tomatoes, the latter because they only started to be used for cooking in this country 200 years later.

The Italians quickly pooh-poohed the idea, saying: ‘Whatever this old dish was called, it was not lasagne as we make it.’

And further doubt was cast on its authenticity when it was pointed out that the recipe bore a remarkable resemblance to the average GCSE Home Economics essay.

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Posted: 15th, July 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink