Does anyone else put bechamel in their lasagna?
I don't remember when I started doing it or how I got the idea, but when I make lasagna I always make a bechamel sauce and layer the bechamel with the meat sauce. Sometimes I add parmesan or provolone to it so technically it turns into a cheese sauce, but if I don't have a hearty amount of cheese on hand I'll just do the bechamel. Does anyone else do this? Can someone tell me where the hell I got this from?
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20 Comments:
I started making lasagna this way a few years ago after receiving "Perfect Recipes for Having People Over" by Pam Anderson, her recipe is for lasagna bolognese (lasagna with ricotta is lasagna al forno.)
Anyway, I like it much better - I find it lighter and tastier and not much more work.
I have a friend who travels to Ireland frequently (her husband is Irish) and she told me her in-laws make it this way all the time, but they used jarred white sauce. (Bechamel is just too easy to make, why bother?!?)
SSMom at 7:03AM on 02/25/08
i made a lasagne with fresh pasta from "Molto Italiano" that called for bechamel, and it was damn tasty.
french tart at 8:42AM on 02/25/08
I only use it for white lasagnes. I do not use it for red ones. If I make a seafood lasagne or veggie I use the bechamel instead of ricotta.
It was a gourmet recipe and this one is close to what I did.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/13493
JerzeeTomato at 8:59AM on 02/25/08
Yep, I think the bechamel is the best part, LOL
s2149136 at 9:14AM on 02/25/08
I've always used bechamel when making lasagna with homemade pasta. I add just a wee bit of nutmeg to the white sauce and sprinkle a very small amount of freshly grated lemon zest in the dish before layering the pasta. I use a very little bit of the best parmesan. No meat in the sauce either. We usually do a mushroom ragu. It is an ethereal light and delicious dish.
Library Lady at 9:26AM on 02/25/08
I use a bechamel with cheese added for my vegetarian lasagne. Picked that up from Pasquale - got his cook book when I left home.
Maureen at 9:29AM on 02/25/08
Ever since buying Mark Bittman's HTCE, I've been making what Bittman calls "Classic Lasagne, Bolognese-Style." And what David Rosengarten calls "Lasagne Bolognese." Actually, Rosengarten reports that the University of Bologna has a recipe for baked lasagne dating from the 14th century. Both recipes call for bechamel. So, I've been making it with bechamel for nearly a decade.
Jeez, it just hit me that it's been almost ten years since I bought the Bittman book--man, time flies--but I have not wasted the past ten years. In that time I have made this lasagne for old & young, lasagne pros and lasagne haters, Italians and non-Italians, foodie & non-foodie, cat people & dog people, strangers & lovers, new parents & the newly single, etc. Even some of my older, more worldly friends were taken aback when I made the dish and called it lasagne. Until they tasted it. Then there was seldom any going back. I certainly haven't.
Man, I think it's time to make lasagne.
wookie at 10:05AM on 02/25/08
oh and btw, the term "al forno" means "at/from the oven."
wookie at 10:09AM on 02/25/08
In my Italian lasagna, never, ever. In my veggie lasagna - Bechamel is the main sauce component.
chiff0nade at 10:47AM on 02/25/08
Marcella Hazan uses both Bechamel and Bolognese meat sauce in her baked green lasagne recipe - you might have gotten it from her. I've never tried it,it always sounded like too much extra work, but now I might have to experiment.
OldHippie at 11:51AM on 02/25/08
Bechamel sauce in "lasagne" is what my husband makes as "pastitsio," a Greek dish. He doesn't use red sauce, the pasta he uses is ziti, and the meat is prepared with allspice, nutmeg, etc.
Cassaendra at 12:44PM on 02/25/08
Pretty much every recipe I've seen printed calls for bechamel, but my grandmother certainly never used it. I don't think she could have even pronounced "bechamel" without a lot of help. Hers was easily the best I've ever had, so I wouldn't dream of changing it by adding bechamel.
jessbat at 12:55PM on 02/25/08
I have always used a white cheese sauce in all my lasagnas. When I was little, I was in charge of making the cheese sauce with all the cheeses we had in the fridge - milk, cream cheese, american sliced cheese, gouda, mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, you name it... so it's not technically a bechamel, but a white sauce nonetheless.
Now I am a fan of pink sauces in most pastas... mixing white cheese sauce with a bit of crushed tomatoes, like my Pink Mac & Cheese and Baked Pasta with 4 cheeses.
Madelyn.
KarmaFreeCooking
MadelynRodriguez at 1:01PM on 02/25/08
I made "Lasagne Bolognese al Forno" from Molto Italiano in which Mario B uses both meat sauce and "besciamella" and no cheese other than sprinklings of parmagiano as you layer. Everyone seemed to like it, but I missed the mozzarella and ricotta myself. I'd like to find a good mushroom lasagne recipe using bechamel, as Liberal Lady mentions. Fresh pasta might also be in order!
Otabenga at 4:26PM on 02/25/08
The description from Otabenga is how I learned to make lasagne when I worked in a food shop. My mom did the ricotta and mozzarella thing, and I was really surprised the first time I saw the bechamel version. But I now much prefer it. I am not a big fan of ricotta in hot preparations, generally. I think the bechamel is definitely better for lasagne made from fresh pasta.
I've encountered it in many sources since, and I am under the impression that it's the most traditional way.
renzata at 5:21PM on 02/25/08
once in paris my friend got lasagna by mistake -- his waiter brought the wrong thing, but he decided to eat it anyway. he offered me a taste. it was made with a bechamel, the first time i'd ever eaten it that way. i thought it was one of the most delicious things i'd ever tasted. it was a lovely november day on the rue mouffetard, i was with two friends whom i adore and who live on the other side of the country, and it suddenly occurred to me that we were eating a magnificent lunch together in paris and that i'd rarely been so happy.
cybercita at 12:14AM on 02/26/08
Like Cassaendra's husband, I make Greek pastitisio and moussaka with bechamel. Haven't put it in lasagna. Yet. Though, I heard recently that most lasagna in Italy is made with bechamel. Guess it varies by region?
Susquehanna at 9:56AM on 02/26/08
Yes, it's classic.
schnitzel at 2:27PM on 02/26/08
A couple of my favorite lasagna/lasagna roll recipes come from Emeril and Giada on the Food Network. Spinach and mushrooms are two of my favorite ingredients and the recipes included those and bechamel and I think all but one also had tomato sauce. Most also had ground beef, pork or pancetta. All had (or I added) ricotta, parm & mozzarella.
If you've never made lasagna rolls - they are great for freezing and having on hand for quick, easy meals.
PerkyMac at 2:42PM on 02/26/08
I make a mushroom and tomato lasagna with Bechamel sauce; it is my very favorite; so different and so good!
http://vinolucistyle.com/2009/09/lasagna-with-tomatoes-mushrooms-and-bechamel-sauce/
VinoLuci at 2:51PM on 09/20/09