Béchamel sauce, or white sauce, is a basic ingredient in many French and Italian recipes. It’s not difficult to make, and there is an easy trick that guarantees that your béchamel sauce will always be smooth, without any lumps.
Uses of Béchamel Sauce
Béchamel sauce is one of the 4 (or 5) mother sauces, or main sauces, in French cuisine. You can make a large variety of sauces based on béchamel, like cheese sauce (aka Mornay sauce) by adding grated cheese, or mustard sauce by adding mustard and mustard seeds. Nantua sauce is béchamel sauce with cream, crayfish butter, and crayfish tails, just to name a few.
Though béchamel is a classic French sauce, it also becomes a key ingredient in classic Italian cooking, especially lasagne bolognese and many other lasagna and pasta dishes. Béchamel sauce can also be used in a large variety of international recipes, e.g. my favorite Hungarian layered potatoes.
One of my favorite super-easy dishes is made by blanching broccoli or cauliflower, putting it in a casserole dish, and covering it with garlic-flavored, thick béchamel and grated cheese. Put the dish in a 350 °F (180 °C) oven for 20-25 minutes, and you have a very tasty, healthy, simple vegetarian dish.
How To Store Béchamel Sauce
To store your béchamel sauce, make sure to cover it with plastic wrap in a way that it touches the surface of the sauce completely. This is to prevent a hard top layer from forming.
You can store it in the fridge for several days.
Béchamel sauce
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp all purpose flour
- 3,5 tbsp butter
- 2 cups (approx. 500 ml) milk
- Salt
Instructions
- Melt your butter in a saucepan over medium heat
- Make a light roux by mixing in the flour and cooking it for 2-3 minutes. What you want is a very light, golden-yellow color. Stir it frequently to prevent it from burning.
- And here is the trick to making a smooth béchamel sauce: Use very hot milk, just below its boiling point. Pour it into the roux all at once, and whisk quickly.
- Cook your béchamel sauce over very low heat, whisking it regularly for a few minutes. It’s ready when it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.If for any reason you find that your béchamel has become lumpy, just use an immersion blender and it’ll smooth it out in no time.
- Season with salt and grated nutmeg.
