[Sca-cooks] Medieval English lasagne?

[Angie Malone]

At 10:35 PM 7/15/2003 -0400, you wrote:

>On Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at 09:32 PM, Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius 
>wrote:
>
>>And what is lasagne (to most of the modern world this means lasagne 
>>bolognese or some close variant thereof) made of? I mean, apart from the 
>>tomato ragout? Largely flat pasta and cheese, no? Rather like the almost 
>>identical 14th-century Italian version published in the 19th century in 
>>the Libro di Coquino? I think there's also a recipe for it in the 
>>Neapolitan collection recently edited/published by Scully.
>
>Just checked - no close matches in the Neapolitan Recipe Collection.
>Some references to lasagne, but no layered dishes of noodle and cheese.
>
>How does the one from Libro di Coquino read?
>
>- Doc
There's a a recipe in the medieval kitchen(Redon, Sabban and Serventi) for 
lasagne.  However it is 'fermented dough' with the cheese and spices.  I 
just made it for our last event in June and it came out pretty 
good.  Although we did have some trouble cooking it which the chemistry 
experts think had to do with letting it rise too long.  Mostly because the 
stove we were using was older than sin and water took forever to boil.

It says in the book "Other Italian books contain recipes for lasagne made 
of flour and water and boiled in meat broth on meat days and almond milk 
for days of abstinence.  Another element that made us choose this version 
in the Liber de Coquina is that it is the only one to explain clearly how 
lasagne are made-by rolling out the dough and cutting it into squares three 
finger-breadths a side--and how they are eaten; with a little pointed 
wooden stick.

         Angeline


The good news was the left over  dough made great pizza and calzone dough.  ;-)