Tracta (dough)

Tracta, tractum (Ancient Greek: τρακτὸς, τρακτόν), also called laganon, laganum, or lagana (Greek: λάγανον) was a kind of drawn out or rolled-out pastry dough in Roman[1] and Greek cuisines.

What exactly it was is unclear:[2] "Latin tracta... appears to be a kind of pastry. It is hard to be sure, because its making is never described fully";[3] and it may have meant different things at different periods.[3] Laganon/laganum was at different periods an unleavened bread, a pancake, or later, perhaps a sort of pasta.[4]

Tracta is mentioned in the Apicius as a thickener for liquids. Vehling's translation of Apicius glosses it as "a piece of pastry, a round bread or roll in this case, stale, best suited for this purpose."[5] Perry compares it to a "ship's biscuit".[6]

It is also mentioned in Cato the Elder's recipe for placenta cake, layered with cheese.[7]

Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae mentions a kind of cake called καπυρίδια, "known as τράκτα", which uses a bread dough, but is baked differently.[8]

Some writers connect it to modern Italian lasagne,[9] of which it is the etymon,[10] but most authors deny that it was pasta.[6][11]

There is a modern Greek leavened flatbread called lagana, but it is not clear when the name was first applied to a leavened bread.