Tracta, tractum (), also called laganon, laganum, or lagana (Ancient Greek: λάγανον), was a kind of drawn out or rolled-out pastry dough in Romanτρακτὸς, τρακτόν "dough drawn out or rolled for pastry", Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus and Greek cuisines.
What exactly it was is unclear:Charles Perry, "What was tracta?", Petits Propos Culinaires 12:37-9 (1982) and a note in 14 "Latin tracta... appears to be a kind of pastry. It is hard to be sure, because its making is never described fully";Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, , s.v. 'Pastry', p. 251 and it may have meant different things at different periods. Laganon/laganum was at different periods an unleavened bread, a pancake, or later, perhaps a sort of pasta.Andrew Dalby, Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, , s.v. 'Pasta', p. 251
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".Joseph Dommers Vehling, editor and translator, Cookery and dining in imperial Rome (1936, reprinted 1977), p. 127 Perry compares it to a "ship's biscuit".Charles Perry, "Old Non-Pasta", Los Angeles Times March 05, 1997
It is also mentioned in Cato the Elder's recipe for placenta cake, layered with cheese., section 76
Athenaeus's Deipnosophistae mentions a kind of cake called , "known as ", which uses a bread dough, but is baked differently.Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3:79
Some writers connect it to modern Italian lasagna, of which it is sometimes claimed to be the etymon (linguistic origin),Vocabolario Etimologico Pianigiani, 1907, s.v. lasagna but most authors deny that it was pasta.Clifford A. Wright, "The History of Macaroni" The etymological origin of lasagna is also generally said to be other than lagana.
There is a modern Greek leavened flatbread called lagana, but it is not clear when the name was first applied to a leavened bread.
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