National Lasagna Day

When: July 29

National Lasagna Day celebrates the layered pasta casserole that combines rich tomato sauce, creamy béchamel, cheese, and a whole lot of love.

A food holiday worth celebrating

The American version and the Italian original share a name and a pan — and almost nothing else. Both are worth defending.

The word "lasagna" refers to the noodle, not the dish — from the Latin "lasanum," meaning cooking pot. The dish that built itself around that noodle in Emilia-Romagna is among the most precisely defined in Italian cooking: thin egg pasta sheets, Bolognese ragù slow-cooked for hours, béchamel sauce, Parmigiano-Reggiano. No ricotta. No mozzarella. The official Bolognese sauce recipe is registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce — a level of culinary formalism that tells you everything about how seriously northern Italy protects its own. The idea behind it is layering time. A real Bolognese is three to four hours at minimum — ground veal, pork, and beef cooked slowly in wine and broth until the collagen breaks down and the fat carries the flavor of everything. The pasta has to be thin enough to be nearly translucent. The béchamel has to be loose enough to flow between layers. The whole thing rests before cutting. It is a dish that cannot be rushed and rewards the people willing to...