Lasagna for the Financiers?

Lasagne alla Finanziera–Lasagna in the Financier’s Style–is a particular preparation in the Piedmont region of Italy. This preparation—and any with the name finanziera—is a nineteenth-century or perhaps eighteenth-century invention.  One finds this kind of preparation in the province of Turin, but also in Lombardy and Liguria as well in French cuisine.  So-named dishes are probably not old and may have been favorites of bankers in the Duchy of Savoy and in the Piedmont. If such dishes are older, and don’t have any exotic and expensive ingredients, they may be related to the Middle Ages in which case finanziera was a word for tax collector not financier. It appears that the name of this dish derives from the time in the nineteenth century when it was the preferred dish of bankers and financiers during their working dinners because the dress worn was different than street clothes.  They wore a long jacket called a financial and the name passed on to the preparation.  It should be remembered though that finanziera did not mean financier before the eighteenth century when it referred to tax collectors.  This dish is sometimes made with cockscomb (creste di gallo) and called lasagne alla Cavour, named for Count Cavour who was instrumental in Italy’s struggle for unification.  Dishes prepared à la financière are also found in classical French cuisine.  Typically, such a dish will be made from some combination of cockscomb, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads, and truffles. Visit www.cliffordawright.com for instructions on making homemade pasta.