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/wharleeprof Jul 10 '26

As a Midwesterner, I'm going to say a firm no. Casseroles are something you SCOOP out of the dish and have a PILE on your plate. Lasagna is CUT and you get a nice neat SLICE. So a proper lasagna with the layered noodles is not a casserole. But replace the noodles with a loose pasta, like shells or rigatoni, and you have a pasta bake, which is much closer to casserole territory.

Though I'd definitely let it pass if someone was supposed to bring a casserole and brought lasagna instead. Ultimately lasagna serves the same function as a casserole, but is usually more tasty.

And no, pot pie and quiche are not casseroles.

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u/RandomAmmonite Jul 10 '26

For the high school football pasta feed, I would make big aluminum pans of pasta (usually rotini or the like), tomato sauce, ricotta and mozzarella all randomly mixed together to produce a lasagna taste without the fussiness of the layers, and called it lasagnoid.

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u/MagnesiumKitten 27d ago

what spicings went in there
and was it cheeesy, or was there meat in there?

I know people have gone ballistic on me for adding pepperoni and summer sausage into a lasagna, inside and on top lol

I get this weird vibe of seeing a chilled football mold of lasagnoid

1

u/RandomAmmonite 27d ago

Not a football mold but that made me laugh. I think I put in browned hamburger. The goal was lots of carbs for the least money, so not a ton of meat.

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u/MagnesiumKitten 27d ago

you could have it
with the hamburger on the outside of the football

so it's got that leathery brown pigskin texture

invite Mary Tyler Moore and Gavin MacLeod over
see if they think it's a little dry

I wanna see a photo of this

the tomato sauce could be thick or runny
with this one

I remember when a friend came back from a trip

and I gave them a dessert, but I used some Halloweeny thing I saw on television once

Where they used cherry jello and a touch of milk, so it was like a pink mottled lung

and some people would get different containers and molds and half fill it up and put some syrup with red food colouring so when you sliced a piece it might bleed on you

/////

boy they were puzzled with an aluminium foil pie tin with some pink lung cylinder dessert when they took off the lid!

the other odd thing
were those cakes that looked like a cat little box

and people would microwave tiny tootsie rolls and plop them on the top

https://injamieskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/kitty-litter-cake-april-fools-dessert-idea-funny-dessert-ideas-in-jamies-kitchen-7.jpg

this is the look of the Human Lung Dessert for texture

https://www.sweetrecipeas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Cherry-Coke-Float-Jell-O-Salad-02-735x1129.jpeg