FORKLORE : Pasta a la Cicero?

Some people believe that the ancient Romans made pasta, and that the word lasagna comes from the Roman laganum . It would be nice to think that when Cicero invited a friend over for laganum et ciceri , it was for a bowl of pasta and garbanzos. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that laganum was ever anything but a thin unleavened bread to the Romans.

Laganum , which the Romans had gotten from the Greeks, died out in Italy during the Middle Ages. Meanwhile, back in Greece, the Greek laganon did evolve into a kind of pasta. Since the Greeks controlled southern Italy off and on during this time, they brought this new boiled laganon with them, and so laganon --the Greek, not the Roman, word--may have given us lasagna after all.

It’s a little hard to figure where the s in lasagna came from, though. Some think the word may have come from the ancient Roman pot called lasanum instead, but lasanum wasn’t a pot for cooking--it was a chamber pot. On the other hand, the Italian commedia dell’arte character Pulcinello is traditionally depicted eating pasta from a chamber pot, and at carnival time, Italians do like to throw pasta on people from a chamber pot for a jest.