/ 15 July 2003

Lasagne is as English as roast beef

Lasagne is as English as roast beef and has been part of the English culinary scene since at least 1390, the Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday, citing a cookbook compiled for Richard II.

Organisers of a medieval festival found the meat, cheese and pasta recipe called loseyns in the ancient cook book.

”Tomatoes didn’t come in for 200 years after that time, so this was the original lasagne,” Maurice Bacon, one of the organisers at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire said.

The Italian embassy in London was having none of it, however.

”Lasagne is English? Never,” a spokesperson said. – Sapa-DPA