In the Liber de Coquina lasagna recipe, boiled sheets were sprinkled with cheese and spices.
The Liber de Coquina is a medieval cookbook preserved in manuscripts from the beginning of the 14th century, although parts of the work may have been composed earlier. Its lasagna recipe differs sharply from the layered baked dish familiar today: dough was fermented, rolled into thin sheets, boiled, seasoned with cheese and spices, and eaten with a small pointed stick.
Later medieval versions recommended cooking the pasta in chicken broth and dressing it with cheese and chicken fat. A variation intended for Lent substituted walnuts, reflecting the period’s religious dietary restrictions.
A common mistake is to imagine this early recipe with tomatoes, minced meat, or modern béchamel. Tomatoes arrived in Europe only after the late 15th-century Columbian exchange, so they could not have been part of this medieval preparation. The recipe shows that lasagna began as seasoned pasta sheets before evolving into a layered regional dish.