Lasagne/Lasagna

[Nick Armstrong]

Where do you stand on Lasagna and Lasagne?

Actually, they're both foreign loan-words, and it rather depends on whether you prefer to use the French or the Italian. Insofar as either can be regarded an an English word now, I'd go for lasagne. English is usually happier with French.

Oddly enough, the dish is always in the plural in French, and it's always puzzled me: to say 'we had lasagna for dinner' the French would say 'on a mangé des lasagnes'...

Typical shabby foreign trick, as Capt. Mainwaring would say

[french frank]

I've copied this over from the marmalade thread so as not to stray ...

I confess I'd never heard of lasagna. You would expect 'lasagna' to refer to a single sheet of the pasta and lasagne (plural) to refer to the made dish (unless you were being very stingy and only using one sheet).

Most pasta types are plural, aren't they? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pasta

So a French plural wouldn't surprise. http://www.lacuisineitalienne.fr/reg...itare-105.html

[Flosshilde]

What's all this about French & lasagne? I know Marie de'Medici taught the French to cook when she married Henry IV (of France), but lasagne is Italian, surely?

[french frank]

What's all this about French & lasagne? I know Marie de'Medici taught the French to cook when she married Henry IV (of France), but lasagne is Italian, surely?

The French 'translate' it - and in fact it's a double plural because lasagne is an Italian plural and the French add an 's' to form a French plural (like some in this country say paninis).

[jean]

Lasagne is an Italian plural. You rarely eat a single sheet of the stuff - any more than you're likely to eat a single spaghetto.

Con il termine lasagne, o, raramente, al singolare, lasagna (dal greco antico làganon, λάγανον), si indica generalmente una pasta all'uovo tagliata in grossi quadrati, o rettangoli, usati soprattutto per pasticci al forno. È un piatto di origine antichissima, compare per la prima volta in forma scritta nel de Re coquinaria di Apicio. La tradizione della sua produzione si è mantenuta nell'Emilia, in Romagna e nelle Marche...

[french frank]

My mistake - I assume the French don't actually add an 's'.

[jean]

My researches indicate that they do - just like us and paninis, as you observed earlier.

(The earlier version of my post assumed that they didn't, but I was wrong)

Italians use spaghetti for Chinese noodles, and the Germans (I think) use Nudeln for both.

[Pabmusic]

Lasagne is an Italian plural. You rarely eat a single sheet of the stuff - any more than you're likely to eat a single spaghetto....

Quite so - you learn something new every day!

[Nick Armstrong]

I assume the French don't actually add an 's'.

Yes they do! That was my point - it's bizarre!

http://www.google.co.uk/#safe=off&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=on+va+manger+des+lasagnes&oq=on+va+manger+des+lasagnes&gs_l=hp.3...971.6059.1.6617.25.24.0.1.1.0.326.2087.20j3j0j1.24.0...0.0...1c.1.16.hp.9Q1rhUo-36Y&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47534661,d.d2k&fp=d35d896c6db128a4&biw=1462&bih=902

[french frank]

Yes they do! That was my point - it's bizarre!

http://www.google.co.uk/#safe=off&ou...w=1462&bih=902

Yes, we've established that. But paninis is parallel. Though I would say that, far from being bizarre, this type of 'regularisation' is quite common in linguistics. If they think of lasagne as being plural (as the Italians do), it must have an 's'. It might even be considered 'hypercorrect'

We say 'hair', the French say 'les cheveux'. As a student I went for a free haircut from a hairdressing school student, anxious to practise. I can still hear the displeasure in her voice as she said," But zay are so curly, zay are so curly."

[BBMmk2]

Tell you what. MrsBBM has an authentic lasagne recipe, from where she lived in an Italian community in Guildford!

[Nick Armstrong]

Tell you what. MrsBBM has an authentic lasagne recipe, from where she lived in an Italian community in Guildford!

Post it, post it birthday boy! Don't just sit around opening presents and swallowing beer!!

[amateur51]

Happy Birthday BBM - hope you're getting something more celebratory than even Mrs BBM's authentic Italian recipe lasagna for your birthday lunch

[BBMmk2]

Thanks ams! had a great day! A few pints of Harveys was had! Cali, when MrsBBM gets a moment, i will post it to you!

[Nick Armstrong]

Cali, when MrsBBM gets a moment, i will post it to you!

I mean, post it here !! For all !