From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
pl. lasagne. A noodle and a dish of these flat noodles made with cheese, tomato sauce and sometimes meat and vegetables, called lasanum by the ancient Romans, consisting, at that time, of strips of dough baked on a flat surface. Since lasagna requires an oven, which for most of Italian history was found only in the kitchens of the wealthy, the dish was considered to be lavish and for special occasions. By the 19th century, lasagna became widely popular in Italy as well as in America. However, the name's origin is not too appetizing: in ancient Greece, lasanon was a "chamber pot" or, as one Greek lexicon puts it, a "night chair." The Romans picked up on this word and later jokingly applied their version of it, lasanum, to a large cooking pot, which eventually give way to the modern Italian name for this hearty dish. See also pasta.
