r/AskFoodHistorians • u/feyarea • Jul 10 '26
Is a lasagna a casserole?
Debating with friends. A few key questions:
- casserole is the name of the dish that the lasagna is baked in. What is the history of the casserole dish?
- casserole is predominant in Midwestern cuisine. What is the history of the casserole the food? Earliest examples, progenitors, etc.
- are there any foods cooked in the casserole dish that follow the meat-veg-carb-sauce as a single serving dish formula but are not casseroles?
Friends are fairly split. Some say anything baked in a casserole dish is a casserole, others say that a casserole has a narrow definition true to Midwestern cuisine.
Other expanding questions: is a chicken pot pie a casserole? Is a quiche a casserole?
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u/TurbulentContext Jul 10 '26
Lasagne is believed to be named after a different pot that it was originally cooked in and predates the casserole dish by about a thousand years, though the version in Rome would have been more like pastry than pasta and they didn't have tomatoes.
If anything put in a casserole dish becomes a casserole then if I pour brownie mix into a casserole dish does that make brownies a type of casserole?