- Preparation time
- 5 mins
- Cooking time
- 10 mins
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Serves
- 4 people
- Meal course
- Ingredient Item
- Posted by
- Posted on
- August 14, 2016
- 4 oz
- Butter
- 2 oz
- Flour - All Purpose
- 1 qt
- Milk
- 1 tsp
- Salt
- 1/2 tsp
- Nutmeg - Ground
Béchamel sauce is widely used in northern Italian cooking. It is not usually used as a ‘sauce’ per se but rather as a component in baked primi like lasagne alla bolognese, cannelloni, polenta pasticciata or crespelle al forno, as well as most gratins. It is therefore an important part of any Italian cook’s repertoire.
For most Italian dishes, where the sauce will be layered into a pasta dish that will later be baked, you want to make a rather loose béchamel sauce.
- Melt a stick of butter (100g, 4 oz.) in a saucepan
- Add 50g, (2 oz.) of flour and simmer the resulting roux over medium low heat for a few minutes, taking care not to allow the roux to darken, and remove from the heat.
- In a separate saucepan, bring a liter (one quart) of milk just barely to a boil.
- Immediately pour the milk into the pan with the roux. Taking a whisk, whip the roux and milk together vigorously, then put the saucepan back on the heat and bring it up to the boil. It will thicken considerably when it gets to the boiling point.
- As soon as the sauce begins to boil, lower the heat to low and simmer for about 5-10 minutes, seasoning well with 1tsp salt and 1/2tsp of nutmeg