Why are the edges on the long side of lasagna usually crimped?

abechstein

According to this website, the edges are ruffled to help trap sauces, though lasagna noodles in Italy are usually totally flat. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-lasagne.htm Jul 11 10, 8:33 AM

Zbeckabee

Here's a new and improved lasagna noodle, but it gives you insight into the old noodle...much as abechstein has related: Conventional lasagna noodles in the past generally consisted of elongate ribbons of alimentary paste having ripples or flutes formed along the longitudinal edges of the elongate ribbon and having either flat planar centers between the fluted edges, or open ended corrugations or ridges extending longitudinally of the ribbons. By way of example, a conventional lasagna noodle having such fluted edges and longitudinally extending ridges is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,686,720. The present invention is an improvement over such prior lasagna noodles. The lasagna noodle incorporating the principles of the present invention results in better compacting of the noodles with adjacent noodles, both above and below a given noodle, in the finally prepared lasagna. Another advantage of the noodles incorporating the principles of the present invention are that they retain more sauce in their corrugations and, thereby, more readily maintain the integrity of the lasagna during serving. And, the lasagna noodle incorporating the principles of the present invention results in a more uniform distribution of the sauce in the lasagna product than did the prior noodles. Moreover, the proportion of noodle in the finished product may be larger for a given number of noodles when the noodle of the invention is employed than where the same number of prior noodles are employed or, conversely, a fewer number of noodles incorporating the principles of the present invention may be utilized than where the prior noodles are employed to obtain the same proportion of noodles in the finished product. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4166136.html Jul 11 10, 10:01 AM