This week: Lasagna recipes, James Beard cookbook winners, cookbook previews and more

For inspiration for this week’s roundup, I googled “most searched recipes”. Near the top of the search, an article at Food & Wine caught my attention entitled the ten most googled recipes since the stay at home orders began. Ironically, we’ve covered six of those most sought out recipes in past roundups except for meatloaf, crepes, French toast, and lasagna. Of these four, lasagna won because my mind was still thinking about the Woven lasagna on the cover of May’s Food & Wine issue.

Samin Nosrat Wants Us to Make Lasagna Together was published in the NY Times near the end of April along with recipes for Simple tomato sauce, Handmade lasagna sheets, and The big lasagna. Below you will find Samin’s video that accompanied this article (she is the best). Just as banana bread had its fifteen minutes of pandemic fame, lasagna’s big moment to shine on social media followed. Everyone was whipping out a tray of lasagna and taking photographs of the layered dish.

---

---

Our EYB library has over 5,000 lasagna recipes (online recipes) from Noodle-less zucchini lasagna to Eggplant lasagne with every imaginable combination sandwiched in between. When talking lasagna dos and don’ts, cooks have their ride or die components for their dish. Some cooks state that a béchamel must play a role while others swear by the ricotta cheese layer. While many cooks demand bolognese, there is a camp of cooks who declare that if the dish doesn’t have meatballs, it just isn’t worth eating.

Are you sitting down and comfortable? I have some information that may blow your mind. Lasagna did not originate in Italy. Its origin can be traced back to Ancient Greece. The name lasagna or lasagne is derived from the Greek word laganon – the first known form of pasta which was a wide, flat noodle cut into strips. Italy came into the picture when the Romans overthrew Greece and occupied the country around 146 BC. It was at that time that they began adopting local culture and food as their own.

What makes a great lasagna in your estimation? Other articles of interest:

• One of my favorite books devoted to the dish: Lasagna: A Baked Pasta Cookbook by Anna Hezel and The Editors of Taste
• 50 lasagna recipes to keep you cozy (Food Network Canada)
• The five secrets to building a great lasagna (Epicurious)
• Avoid these common mistakes (Bon Appétit)

---

This Week on our Blog

Since our last roundup, Darcie has written articles entitled: More than 10,000 Member-uploaded photos in the EYB Library, James Beard Cookbook Award Winners 2020, Jams and jellies can preserve more than fruits and vegetables and Spice support: capers (previous spice support articles can be found using the #spicesupport). This week our monthly newsletter was sent out so be sure to check your inboxes (you can always find current and past issues in our archive)! Darcie’s weekly food news antipasto is shared every Sunday #foodnews brings up these information-packed posts).

This week I shared our monthly new cookbook review (updated with a special ebook from Gennaro Contaldo that supports UK food banks) along with our EYB Cookbook Club summary. Be sure to download Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed’s Baking Sampler. There are some fantastic recipes in this collection. Do not forget to check out which cookbooks are on sale in Kindle post this week.

---

Featured Recently Indexed Cookbooks

• Perfectly Golden: Adaptable Recipes for Sweet and Simple Treats by Angela Garbacz
• Delish: Eat Like Every Day’s the Weekend by Joanna Saltz and Editors of Delish
• The Silver Spoon: Recipes for Babies by The Silver Spoon Kitchen Please remember that Eat Your Book members receive 30% off Phaidon titles when using the link provided.
• Chinese Street Food: Small Bites, Classic Recipes, and Harrowing Tales Across the Middle Kingdom by Howie Southworth and Greg Matza
• Cookies Are Magic: Classic Cookies, Brownies, Bars, and More by Maida Heatter
• Biscuit Head: New Southern Biscuits, Breakfasts, and Brunch by Jason and Carolyn Roy
• Cooking in Marfa: Welcome, We’ve Been Expecting You by Virginia Lebermann and Rocky Barnette Please remember that Eat Your Book members receive 30% off Phaidon titles when using the link provided.
• Provisions: The Roots of Caribbean Cooking by Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau
• Pure Vegan: 70 Recipes for Beautiful Meals and Clean Living by Joseph Shuldiner

---

Member Photo of the Week

Chopped salad: three ways – original version (Salata Arabieh 1), Roasted aubergine with tamarind and coriander (Batinjan bil tamer hindi), Spicy roasted new potatoes with lemon and herbs (Batata bil filfil), and Hummus: two ways – kofta version from Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley submitted by member Veganbaksels

Falastin is our July main cookbook option in the Eat Your Books Cookbook Club (published 3/26/2020 in the UK; US release 6/16/2020)

Have you uploaded any of your own photos yet? Learn more! Please remember to update your profile with your Instagram name if you would like to be tagged in any photos that we share!

---

Featured Online Recipe

Marmalade, toast and whiskey ice cream from Diana Henry at The Sunday Telegraph by Diana Henry

---

EYBDigital Previews

Recently we uploaded our 669th EYBDigital Preview where a selection of full sample pages is available for the following cookbooks.

Learn more about EYBDigital Previews.

Note: To learn why you cannot add all EYBDigital Preview recipes to your Bookshelf, please read this Help page.

---

• 3 recipes from No-Thaw Paleo Cooking in Your Instant Pot®: Fast, Flavorful Meals Straight from the Freezer by Dr. Karen S. Lee
• 4 recipes from Drink What You Want: The Subjective Guide to Making Objectively Delicious Cocktails by John deBary Pub date 6/2/2020
• 3 recipes from The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables: Canning, Pickling, Fermenting, Dehydrating and Freezing Your Favorite Fresh Produce by Angi Schneider Pub date 6/9/2020
• 3 recipes from Effortless Vegan: Delicious Plant-Based Recipes with Easy Instructions, Few Ingredients and Minimal Cleanup by Sarah Nevins Pub date 6/16/2020

---

Cookbook Giveaways

• Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Aran: Recipes and Stories from a Bakery in the Heart of Scotland by Flora Shedden Expires June 28th, 2020
• Enter our US giveaway to win one of three copies and 1 copy offered by EYB worldwide of Week Light: Super-Fast Meals to Make You Feel Good by Donna Hay. Expires June 30th, 2020

*Please note due to the pandemic, promotions are extended until publishers are back in their offices, and warehouses are available to resume the shipment of books. The cookbook giveaway roundup shares all current giveaways.

---

View Past Weekly Roundups