lasagna
n. C / Un. a popular Italian dish made of layers of flat pasta, meat or vegetables, cheese, and tomato sauce.
n. a baked Italian dish consisting of alternating layers of wide, flat pasta sheets and various fillings, typically including ragù, béchamel, and cheese.
We are having homemade lasagna for dinner tonight.
The chef carefully layered the pasta and sauce to ensure the lasagna held its shape when sliced.
While traditional recipes from Bologna use green spinach pasta and a rich meat sauce, modern variations of lasagna often incorporate roasted vegetables or seafood to cater to diverse dietary preferences.
From Italian lasagna (and its plural lasagne), possibly from Vulgar Latin *lasania, from Latin lasanum (“cooking pot”), from Ancient Greek λάσανον (lásanon, “trivet or stand for a pot”). Others argue the Italian lasagna originally derived from the Arabic لَوْزِينَج (lawzīnaj, “almond cake”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Uncountable when referring to the dish in general; countable when referring to specific portions or different recipes.
Last updated May 8, 2026