Matzo lasagna (sometimes spelled matzah lasagna), also known as matzagna, is a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

type of

lasagna Lasagna (, also , also known as lasagne, ) is a type of pasta, possibly one of the oldest types, made of very wide, flat sheets. Either term can also refer to an Italian dish made of stacked layers of lasagna alternating with fillings such a ...

made by layering sheets of

matzo Matzah or matzo ( he, מַצָּה, translit=maṣṣā'','' pl. matzot or Ashk. matzos) is an unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which '' chametz'' (leaven ...

with typically a tomato or a bechamel sauce and various cheeses. It originated from the

Italian Jews Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in ...

and is popular in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and the rest of the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...

. It is similar to the traditional

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

dish

mina Mina may refer to: Places Iran * Minaq, East Azerbaijan * Mina, Fars * Mineh, Lorestan Province * Mina, Razavi Khorasan * Mehneh, Razavi Khorasan Province United States * Mina, California * Mina, Nevada * Mina, New York * Mina, Ohio * Mina ...

; though the fillings differ as mina is typically made with meat or a spinach and feta filling while matzo lasagna is made with sauce and cheese.

Background

During Passover,

Jewish law ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical command ...

prohibits the consumption of food items other than matzo that are made with wheat or other similar

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legu ...

s. Given these restrictions, some individuals will make lasagna by substituting matzo for traditional wheat pasta sheets. Some people substitute

cottage cheese Cottage cheese is a curdled milk product with a mild flavor and a creamy, non-homogeneous, soupy texture. It is made from skimmed milk by draining the cheese, as opposed to pressing it to make cheese curd—retaining some of the whey and keepi ...

farmers cheese In the United States, farmer cheese (also farmer's cheese or farmers' cheese) is pressed curds, an unripened cheese made by adding rennet and bacterial starter to coagulate and acidify milk. Farmer cheese may be made from the milk of cows, she ...

and abstain from ricotta cheese during Passover as Kosher-for-Passover varieties are difficult to find.

History

Matzo lasagna descended from a local Italian Jewish variant of a much older Sephardic culinary tradition of Passover pies, or casseroles, called

minas Minas or MINAS may refer to: People with the given name Minas * Menas of Ethiopia (died 1563) * Saint Menas (Minas, 285–309) * Minias of Florence (Minas, Miniato, died 250) * Minas Alozidis (born 1984), Greek hurdler * Minas Avetisyan (192 ...

. Minas are composed of sheets of matzo layered with savory ingredients and baked. Some have ground lamb in a tomato sauce; others may be made with spinach and cheese similar to the Israeli

bourekas Bourekas or burekas ( he, בורקס) are a popular baked pastry in Sephardic Jewish cuisine and Israeli cuisine. A variation of the burek, a popular pastry throughout southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Israeli bourekas are m ...

but made with matzo instead of

phyllo Filo or phyllo is a very thin unleavened dough used for making pastries such as baklava and börek in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Filo-based pastries are made by layering many sheets of filo brushed with oil or butter; the pastry is th ...

puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as ', is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (') and butter or other solid fat ('). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a ' that is repeatedly folded and rolled out bef ...

Varieties

Matzo lasagna can be made with regular, shmura,

egg matzo An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

, or

gluten-free A gluten-free diet (GFD) is a nutritional plan that strictly excludes gluten, which is a mixture of proteins found in wheat (and all of its species and hybrids, such as spelt, kamut, and triticale), as well as barley, rye, and oats. The inclu ...

matzo, and fillings include tomato sauce, ricotta cheese and mozzarella-basil filling, while some use

fresh mozzarella Fresh or FRESH may refer to: People * DJ Fresh (born 1977), UK-based drum and bass artist *DJ Fresh (producer), US-based R&B producer born Marqus Brown Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (20 ...

, a spinach-ricotta filling, and cheese with ramps, peas spinach, leeks and chives.

Preparation

Matzo lasagna is prepared by adding tomato sauce to the bottom of a casserole dish, the layering large sheets of Matzoquiles over the sauce and then adding a layer of ricotta cheese mixed with parmesan, eggs, herbs and spices, then another layer of sauce, matzo, ricotta cheese mixture, and continuing until the pan is full and is then topped with mozzarella or similar melting cheese and baked until the cheese bubbled and the top is golden brown.

References

{{Passover Matzo Flatbread dishes Passover foods Jewish cuisine Jewish baked goods

Background

History

Varieties

Preparation

See also

References