let us begin i don’t know any italian how do you say let’s do it opposites of ciao [Music] welcome to the series premiere of edible history we’re learning the stories behind some of the world’s most popular foods then diving into the kitchen to try our hand at cooking like the chefs and bakers of yesteryear today we’re going to be discussing the origins of an often loved and heartburn-inducing dish called lasagna ah lasagna it’s tasty it’s filling it’s dense but where does lasagna come from italy probably why is it like this has it always been so dense have people ever eaten it and then not immediately taken a nap these are all questions and i’m seeking answers today we’re joined by linda from salty seattle hello what’s up hannah what’s up you’re freaking me off can you tell me a little bit about lasagna where it comes from so lasagna is actually super interesting italy is very regionalistic and everybody thinks that they invented the thing you have says lay down in the south of italy and then you have bologna and they both sort of like vie for the inventor of what we think of as modern day lasagna but the reality is it predates both of those different versions this poem that dates all the way back to the 13th century he who looks at magnitude is often mistaken a grain of pepper conquers lasagna with its strength so that comes all the way back from the 1200s which probably predates anything anybody was doing in sicily uh or in bologna wow that’s super old was it always as as cheesy and as saucy as it is today definitely not italians didn’t even get tomatoes until like the latter renaissance what i think of tomatoes is basically an italian fruit the original lasagnas were basically dry cracky sheets with maybe a little bit of like a sprinkling or a smattering of some cheese um and then maybe like some some strange and esoteric medieval spices when i think about lasagna i picture a big serving tray of lasagna and everybody’s getting their own individual slice earlier iterations of lasagna they would make like little like pasta handkerchiefs little just squares you know and a square and then maybe some bechamel one of the original sauces and then another square and then some bechamel they would actually eat it off of hot spears or hot sticks i gotta say that a boiled semi-spiced noodle on a hot stick is not what i think of when i think of lasagna today we’ll be making a lasagna recipe that’s 700 years old it comes from the liber de coquina an anonymous cookbook from the 14th century court of naples wow now as linda told us this won’t end up looking anything like the lasagna we know and love in fact the only ingredients that the recipe calls for are semolina flour water cheese and medieval spices like cardamom clove and cinnamon i’ve never thought of adding those to my lasagna never even once [Music] so to begin let’s make our dough semolina flour plus water equals dough for me to eat to make my pasta i’m going to start by dumping out my semolina flour and making a well and then using our finger we’re gonna make it deeper nice now we’re gonna pour some water into this well and then start to gently stir it together we’re gonna add a little more water [Music] oh yeah baby semolina i barely noah it feels a little granular and it’s still falling apart at the edges so just keep kneading until it becomes nice and smooth and then when you poke it it springs back at you you know you can really feel this in your wrist which is probably why italian grandmas have such strong hands okay we’re gonna put it in a little ball now this is looking pretty smooth to me now we just gotta give it a little poke and see if it springs back at us so we’re done with our dough now we just have to let it rest for 30 minutes good night little dough when you wake up things are gonna get weird voila wow what a well-rested dough now i’m going to roll it out basically as flat as i can [Music] sorry reflex we’re gonna sprinkle a little flour on to make sure it doesn’t stick [Music] wow it’s gonna take a minute to get this thing flat [Music] this is a pro move i don’t know if you guys have ever seen it it’s called owl my hands hurt [Music] okay that looks pretty good let’s check and nope that is not thin enough we can get thinner than this let’s go [Music] so my cutting board is a little bit too small for the depth and width i want to roll out so i’m actually just going to trim some of the edges and set the rest aside great now let’s just keep on rolling [Music] all right let’s take a look oh this this is looking like pasta this looks pretty dang thin to me and it feels so good it’s so fun to hold it’s like holding flesh [Music] the next step is to cut our pasta into squares three fingers long and wide because it’s a square now i was pretty hesitant when it said cut it into squares because um isn’t lasagna like a rectangle but that’s what the latin said to do it’s all greek to me oh shoot i haven’t measured i’m sure you’ve noticed by now rabid edible history fans but this is not your standard tasty fare okay and that’s not them that’s me these lines look plenty straight we got our squares cut and ready to go so next step is to boil them patience is a virtue we’re gonna take our little pasta squares and boil them in salted water for about two to three minutes a piece now i’m just gonna take out my tiny squares and set them aside to cool before i add all of my tasty goodness i am genuinely curious about how this is gonna work out [Music] [Applause] okay here we are the home stretch so now what we’re gonna do is we’re going to take our individual squares layer them with cheese add some spices and just keep going until we feel like stopping or we run out one two we’ll be using goat cheese we’re also going to be adding a little parmesan because it’s my show we can do whatever we want and also a little feta let’s see how these all taste together now we’re going to add a little layer of clove [Music] and then place on top because the steps are so vague i’m going to add one spice at a time instead of putting all the spices on every layer it’s looking like lasagna already [Music] [Music] voila now looking at this i’m going to take a little bit artistic liberty and maybe just put a gentle sprinkle of feta and parmesan over it little feta makes it better i’m very rustic with my plating you know gives it a little bit of that je ne sais quoi and [Applause] last but not least we’ll eat it exactly as the recipe tells us it says with a wooden stick okay so bon appetito this is pretty neato so i guess i don’t i don’t really know how if i’m supposed to flip it upside down and eat it yeah okay wow i mean let’s be honest the wooden stick really works it pretty much holds it all together cheers you know i don’t know if i need this wooden stick but this is not bad kind of tastes like arugula like a cheesy noodley cinnamon cardamommy clovey dessert it’s not the most balanced array of spices but honestly i feel like with time and with practice this could turn out pretty good i would definitely want to bake it though i think that would just make it so much better despite them looking and tasting so different i can really see how this later evolved to becoming what we consider lasagna it goes to show that no matter how far back you go in time some dishes are just good oh um i kind of dig it who’da thunk what a tasty little thing thanks so much for watching this episode of edible history i for one am excited to see where our taste buds take us next [Music] you Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG0apoCUFUE
