My daughter-in-law is a techie who lives in Silicon Valley. She is a very good cook and she is also a minimalist so she eschews cookbooks. For her, the internet is a perfect source. On the other hand, my daughter Carol loves cookbooks. She has shelves of them in her kitchen, and there is usually at least one tucked in her bedside book stack. For her, reading a cookbook beats reading a romance novel.
It was Carol’s turn to make the main course for our usual Sunday family meal, and the planets came together. Carol was on a diet in which vegetables are encouraged, meat and poultry are essential, and dairy products should be avoided. She found a dish that fit her requirements in a book she was reading, The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Weekends: Renaissance Lasagne. In addition, our granddaughter – the only person in the family who does not like lasagna (Whoever heard of that?) – was away at college. It was the perfect time to give the recipe a try. The recipe originally came from the radio show on NPR, “The Splendid Table.” I don’t know if the authors were touting it as an authentic recipe from the Renaissance. I have my doubts, because most recipes that I have read from the era say things like, “Take a knob of butter and mix with a handful of nuts not too freshly harvested and muddle with a dipper of milk.” This recipe is far too specific for that. I think the point is supposed to be that noodles approximating modern lasagne have been around since Roman times, and tomatoes did not reach the table until well after their transport from the New World after 1492. This recipe has no tomatoes but is rich with chicken along with raisins and pine nuts. With a store list like that, it is clear that even if the recipe is absolutely authentic, this lasagna was almost certainly served only in the ducal palace or at the table of a wealthy merchant.
Carol’s menu was drawn straight from the cookbook. After our traditional half hour or so for drinks, light snacks and conversation about the events of the week, she served us what is titled in the book as “An Unusual Italian Salad”. It is based on frisée lettuce with curls of Parmigiano-Reggiano, candied lemon peel, toasted pine nuts, a vinaigrette and balsamic syrup. 
Then came the main dish accompanied with crisp-crusted Italian bread: Renaissance Lasagne. The cookbook describes it as “…the long-lost wayward sister of the lasagne you have known and loved…straight out of Italy’s culinary golden age, the Renaissance.” The delicacy and thinness of homemade pasta is an important part of the dish, but you can substitute store-bought, especially if you are in a hurry. Then you layer the pasta with “a light chicken ragù and sprinklings of nuts, raisins, spices, and cheese.”
I will not include the recipes for either the salad or the lasagne as they are readily available in the book, on the internet, or on Pinterest. Trust me, the meal was delicious, and the recipes are worth adding to your collection.
Lasagna lagniappe: lasagna or lasagne?
In Italian, one noodle = lasagna; two or more noodles = lasagne. In the USA, the convention is that the dish is spelled lasagna while in other English-speaking countries, i.e. the UK, Australia, etc., the dish is spelled lasagne. (Think favorite/favourite) Even though the Splendid Table hails from the USA, they have chosen to spell the dish lasagne. Either way – or both – lasagna/e is one of my favorite foods. PPS: The automatic spell check in this software is driving me crazy. It keeps changing “e” to “a” when I am not looking.
From the Family Table 