Tracta (dough)

For the modern Greek flatbread, see lagana (bread).

Tracta, tractum (Ancient Greek: τρακτὸς, τρακτόν), also called laganon, laganum, or lagana (Ancient 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 lasagna,^[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.^{[citation needed]}