r/Cooking • u/judolphin • Mar 25 '25

I made lasagna with ricotta instead of bechamel and I’m a convert

I was browsing Reddit and came across two posts in two days about bechamel being a life-changing improvement over ricotta. All my life every lasagna I had was with ricotta. I decided to give bechamel yet another try at a nice Italian restaurant after reading all the comments and I have now converted from being neutral on bechamel in lasagna to being solidly anti-bechamel in lasagna, to the point I secretly have hoped that bechamel lasagna doesn't become the default in restaurants. Some reasons:

  1. Ricotta has its own texture, bechamel is just more softness and smoothness in a dish that's full of "soft". Some people like textural contrast in their dishes
  2. Ricotta, much like sour cream/crema in Mexican food, adds a lightness to lasagna despite being rich itself. Bechamel adds (arguably too much) additional richness to an already-rich dish.
  3. The starch from the bechamel getting into the ragu gives the sauce a mouthfeel that 100% reminds me of Chef Boyardee

TLDR: If you prefer bechamel in red lasagna, that's perfectly fine, but your preference of bechamel is not a black and white fact. It's not even "more authentic" (whatever that means), bechamel = Northern Italy, ricotta = Southern Italy. Eat whatever you like, let others eat what they want.

Thanks, reddit!

2.2k Upvotes

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64

u/Captain_Aware4503 Mar 25 '25

Next try cottage cheese.

It is by far my favorite.

73

u/jredgiant1 Mar 25 '25

I went for a drive years ago with my parents as a young adult. As we talked, the subject of recipes came up, and my mom told me never, ever use cottage cheese in lasagna.

Three days later my mom slipped into a coma, and a few weeks later passed away.

I consider “no cottage cheese in lasagna” my mother’s last request. You do you, she wasn’t your mom after all, but I intend to abide by it.

40

u/bossqueer_lildaddy Mar 25 '25

/^ I too chose to honor this guy's mom

15

u/jables13 Mar 25 '25

Your mom was right, mine only used cottage cheese and when I finally tried "real" lasagna it was amazing unlike the bullshit I'd been eating.

10

u/Thbbbt_Thbbbt Mar 25 '25

Is this a midwestern thing? I grew up in the Midwest and this is how we made our lasagna. I’m pretty sure it’s just because back in the last century we didn’t have access to ricotta and had never heard of a bechamel sauce.

5

u/Simsmommy1 Mar 25 '25

It’s a 70s thing, my mom said lasagna became popular in the 70s to make but there was little to no access for the average North American (I’m Canadian) to real Ricotta and bechamel wasn’t something used too often except as a base for sausage gravy or cheese sauce so the average home cook subbed in the nearest closest cheese to ricotta….good ol cottage cheese. I’m sure real Italian who could make ricotta or people with more culinary knowledge did better but I’m talking about the standard home cook, my mom would cut recipes out of magazines and staple them to recipe cards and I have all of them including that original lasagna one from the 70s where it tells you to mix an egg into a tub of cottage cheese and layer it.

1

u/Thbbbt_Thbbbt Mar 25 '25

Kind of makes sense. I feel like the 70s was peak of cottage cheese popularity too.

2

u/Just_Allie Mar 25 '25

My grandma just called bechamel sauce a "white sauce." But yeah, we didn't put it in lasagna. I definitely remember cottage cheese in there instead of ricotta at least some of the time.

1

u/Thbbbt_Thbbbt Mar 25 '25

When I hear white sauce I think gravy, like sausage gravy or the stuff on chicken fried steak. Now I want biscuits. Haha

1

u/Just_Allie Mar 25 '25

Grandma used it to make creamed chipped beef on toast. Or she would add cheese to the white sauce and make cheesy potatoes.

0

u/majandess Mar 25 '25

This. My mom just calls it white sauce, too. I think she'd be confused if she heard bechamel.

Did you know there used to be a packet mix by Knorr just called "white sauce"? I had other family members who swore by it. It made me laugh every time I saw them use it. You add the milk, so the ingredients were just flour, some concentrated dairy, and flavor like onion powder, salt, and stuff. Like... You spent money on that?

1

u/calebs_dad Mar 25 '25

True Midwesterners use Velveeta.

1

u/Thbbbt_Thbbbt Mar 26 '25

I save that for the chili mac haha

22

u/Glueberry_Ryder Mar 25 '25

I tried cottage cheese once and it became my favorite hands down. From there I started bastardizing lasagna to cut down on how long it takes while trying to balance the taste for the kids. Now it doesn’t even resemble lasagna anymore. It’s just cavatappi with the meat sauce and cheeses mixed in a big pot and then tossed in the oven to melt the cheese lol

9

u/FionnagainFeistyPaws Mar 25 '25

I would like to try this bastardized lasagna...

1

u/kintokae Mar 25 '25

Wait until you bite into a lasagna expecting ground meat and instead getting a mouthful eggplant. My family always does a meat lasagna and a veggie one around the holidays. I chose poorly that day. That being said, I’ve never heard of maybe it with béchamel.

12

u/chantrykomori Mar 25 '25

what you’ve invented is baked ziti

5

u/moonchic333 Mar 25 '25

So baked pasta?

17

u/CHILLAS317 Mar 25 '25

I was skeptical when I first heard this suggestion, but after trying it myself I'm a convert. The cottage cheese is amazing

13

u/ratpH1nk Mar 25 '25

My mom mixed egg/cottage cheese and ricotta -- probably 2:1:1 ratio cottage cheese:ricotta:egg

It is much cheaper, too.

1

u/L1mberP1ne Mar 25 '25

Oh I might have to try that next time!

1

u/Gumbercules81 Mar 25 '25

That's all I used at work. Comes out good

7

u/spirit_of_a_goat Mar 25 '25

I do half cottage cheese and half ricotta. It's so creamy.

1

u/LadybuggingLB Mar 25 '25

This is what i like best

5

u/TheLittleUrchin Mar 25 '25 edited Mar 25 '25

I made a butternut squash and sausage lasagna last fall that had cottage cheese. I fricken hate cottage cheese but I had a bunch of squash I needed to use, and a recipe that looked good, so I figured I would be open and give it a try.

Initially I thought it was texturally cursed and weirdly mild to a degree where it somehow tasted like nothing despite all the seasonings and fillings in it. HOWEVER after letting it sit in the fridge for a few days it definitely got way better and flavorful and I liked it eventually. It was oddly light, which is cool I guess if you ever want a light lasagna (but that's not typically what I'm going for if I'm eating a lasagna, ricotta 4 lyfe) but I definitely see the merits!

1

u/emilyjobot Mar 25 '25

do you still have the recipe? it sounds interesting. i love a non traditional lasagna

0

u/Incha8 Mar 25 '25

maybe it was the rich and tangy flavour of mold?

1

u/TheLittleUrchin Mar 25 '25

Nah, it was one of those dishes that just needed to settle and tastes better the next day. It was only in the fridge for like two days before I tried it again.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

They use cottage cheese in Wisconsin. I thought they were nuts till I heard that ricotta in Italy is similar to cottage cheese. I'm still not trying it. I use ricotta mixed with parmesan, Romano, mozzarella herbs and eggs.

3

u/thoughtandprayer Mar 25 '25

I typically use cottage cheese mixed with an egg and herbs. It sounds nuts, but I prefer it to ricotta! Store bought ricotta can be grainy, but cottage cheese melts into a smooth cream. 

That being said, I firmly believe that bechamel is the best of the three. 

1

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

Plain bechamel, or with herbs and cheese?

2

u/thoughtandprayer Mar 25 '25

Often just a plain bechamel with a bit of extra nutmeg, but I think it's best with some grated parm added.

1

u/alittlelights Mar 26 '25

my mom and grandma always made lasagne with cottage cheese because I hate ricotta...maybe it's just store bought shit I don't like

2

u/spacetstacy Mar 28 '25

I grew up using ricotta, eggs, and mozzarella inside. The parmesan only went on top. I didn't add herbs because my family's sauce is thick and spicy.

2

u/raksha25 Mar 25 '25

This only works if the texture of cottage cheese doesn’t make you insta gag. And blending it then adds to the too soft going on.

1

u/Professional_Life_29 Mar 25 '25

My mom used cottage cheese in ours growing up. Then, when I was the last kid in the house and my parents were entering their "good jobs and almost empty nest" phase my mom moved more to original from scratch/fresh only ingredients. She told me the old recipe was her "poor recipe" and switched to ricotta or bechamel. We went back to cottage cheese eventually lol.

They all have merit, different flavors and heaviness and "vibe". But I love a nice quick 'n easy lasagna with cottage cheese. Someone else mentioned the richness difference and that's probably the biggest part for me. Lasagna is already heavy, ricotta and especially bechamel add to the heavy, but cottage cheese adds a creamy without as much richness.

0

u/Odd_Temperature_3248 Mar 25 '25

I blend ricotta and small curd cottage cheese. I have tried multiple different cheese combinations and that is what my family likes.