Tracta (dough)

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

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

What exactly it was is unclear: "Latin tracta... appears to be a kind of pastry. It is hard to be sure, because its making is never described fully"; 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.

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." Perry compares it to a "ship's biscuit".

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

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

Some writers connect it to modern Italian lasagne, of which it is the etymon, but most authors deny that it was pasta.

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