[Sca-cooks] Medieval English lasagne?

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Daniel Myers:
>Just checked - no close matches in the Neapolitan Recipe Collection. 
>Some references to lasagne, but no layered dishes of noodle and 
>cheese.

Close match to what, and why the fixation on layers? It should be 
noted that even now, not all lasagne dishes are layered. Some still 
just toss the ingredients and let gravity do the layering.

Looking back on the English Hares in Papdele recipe, which has 
Italian near-equivalents, it is not really clear that the dish is 
intended to be layered, although loseyns are mentioned as one option 
for the starchy substrate. Wafers are another; interesting that no 
option like pappardele ["pieces of paper'] is mentioned, unless 
that's covered by loseyns and by the dish name itself.

>How does the one from Libro di Coquino read?

It's translated in "The Medieval Kitchen" as follows:

"Of lasagne.	To make lasagne take fermented dough and make it into 
as thin a shape as possible. Then divide it into squares of three 
fingerbreadths per side. Then take salted boiling water and cook 
those lasagne in it. And when they are fully cooked, add grated 
cheese.
	And, if you like, you can also add good powdered spices and 
powder them on them, when they are on the trencher. Then put a layer 
of lasagne and powder [spices] again; and on top another layer and 
powder, and continue until the trencher or bowl is full. Then eat 
them by taking them up with a pointed wooden stick." [LC 412]

The mention of cutting the dough into squares three fingers wide, 
roughly 2 - 2 1/2 inches, perhaps, suggests to me that losenges 
(either the heraldic shape or maybe just a reference to 
cross-hatching) are indicated by the name, and it is layered, just 
not with ricotta, mozzarella, and meat ragu (nor with ragu bolognese 
and vegetables balsamello). I guess what qualifies as lasagne depends 
a great deal on people's preconceived notions.

So, I don't have the Neapolitan Recipe Collection here in front of me 
(although it probably is within three feet of me; I just can't find 
it). I'm pretty sure it has pasta recipes. What does it tell us about 
lasagne?

Adamantius