Thanksgiving Lasagna: The Italian-American Tradition You Need To Try

Every family has their own Thanksgiving meal traditions. Perhaps your family loves chestnut stuffing, or perhaps the only string bean casserole you'll eat is your Aunt Sonia's. So, when you visit another family's home for Thanksgiving dinner, one of two things can happen: You either bemoan the fact that some of your favorite holiday dishes are missing or are made in an entirely unfamiliar way, or you discover something new that you wish your family would make one of their own traditions. If you've ever joined an Italian-American family for Thanksgiving, you'll most likely choose the latter and wish you could have lasagna with or without your turkey each and every year.

While there are no statistics available on how many of the over 20 million Italian-Americans living in the U.S. serve lasagna on Thanksgiving Day, chefs, writers, and everyone's favorite Italian actor and food aficionado, Stanley Tucci, have waxed poetic about the lasagnas their families serve at some point during the Thanksgiving meal. For some, lasagna is a delicious alternative to turkey that they can make ahead of time. For others, it's a delicious pasta course served between appetizers and the beloved bird, while for some families, it's simply a side dish.

It's unsurprising that lasagna ended up on the menu for one of America's most celebrated days of the year, as it's often considered a celebratory dish. In several regions of Italy, lasagna was considered a delicacy or was eaten only on special occasions. In Naples, it was a dish people traditionally ate in the days before Lent so they could use up all of their remaining meat and dairy products before their fasting began.

As for variations, a veggie lasagna makes a terrific meatless main dish for Thanksgiving. While many families make a traditional lasagna, some do try to add in a little Thanksgiving flair with ingredients like nutmeg, butternut squash, or ground turkey — you can even try this pumpkin lasagna recipe. If you're thinking about adding lasagna to your Thanksgiving but aren't yet ready to add a new family tradition, another option is to make a lasagna with your holiday leftovers. Perhaps you'd even like to add a little cranberry sauce inside.