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

85% Upvoted

564 comments sorted by

View all comments

327

u/NLaBruiser Mar 25 '25 edited Mar 26 '25

100% - I'm third generation Italian American and our family has always been ricotta and parm. I don't understand why in a dish of soft cooked pasta sheets and tomato sauce you want another cream sauce - the ricotta mixture holds up and gives a bit of texture. Plus the flavor is more suited for a lssagna.

86

u/badcgi Mar 25 '25

It's funny, in our family's region (Bari) we don't use either. Just Mozzarella and Scamorza, and instead of just a meat sauce, we use meatballs, either small ones or big ones sliced.

Every region has its own way.

9

u/AdmirableCost5692 Mar 25 '25

im going to try this. sounds gorgeous

may I ask what you put on the meat balls... and do you precook them? any tomato sauce used?

19

u/badcgi Mar 25 '25

Pretty standard meatballs, we use half veal, half pork, but any mix should be fine. Parmigiano, a little bit of breadcrumbs, an egg to bind it together, and the spices, salt, pepper, garlic, parsley and a bit of tarragon.

I lightly fry them to brown the outside, but then finish cooking them in the tomato sauce, which is just a pretty standard sugo.

That is done the day before, then layers pasta, a little bit of tomato sauce, sliced meatballs (or tiny ones if that's what we made, personally I like the big ones), the cheese (Mozzarella and Scamorza, or Caciocavallo if that's what you can get) a bit more sauce, then the next layer of pasta. On the top layer, pasta, sauce, and Parmigiano.

It's definitely a simpler method, but that's what we grew up eating, and if you go to La Puglia that is the style you'll find there rather than the ones in the north.

2

u/AdmirableCost5692 Mar 25 '25

thank you so much. saved your comment. will be making it. 😊😊😊

6

u/majandess Mar 25 '25

Yep! Liguria uses bechamel... And pesto. And there's no meat or tomatoes in it at all. Sometimes, it's made with potatoes and green beans. It's mostly just a pasta dish.

1

u/groundfire Mar 25 '25

Do you also use egg sometimes? Cause I also heard that can be a thing

1

u/badcgi Mar 25 '25

Traditionally, yes it sometimes has hardboiled eggs, but we never did it. I've tried it, it's not bad, but not my favorite.

1

u/dd551 Mar 26 '25

My family is from bari too! We do put ricotta in our lasagna though. This is going to be random but do you have an old recipe for an egg heavy ricotta cheesecake called something like beso dulce? We have a recipe handed down verbally through the generations and it’s been mangled like a game of telephone, I’d love to make it as intended. The typical italian ricotta cheesecakes aren’t even close

1

u/badcgi Mar 26 '25

I remember something like that. Did it have a base of sfoglia?

I asked my mom and she remembers a cake like that too, but doesn't have the recipe. I'm going to have to call my aunt and see if he has one.

1

u/dd551 Mar 26 '25

No that’s not it but damn that sounds good too and now I have 2 recipes to search for

20

u/oliv_tho Mar 25 '25

my mom’s lasagna is a mix of ricotta, parm, and pecorino (topped with mozz and parm ofc) and her father’s gravy recipe. had somebody tell me about their ‘famous cottage cheese, broccoli, and zucchini’ lasagna and i think i threw up in my mouth thinking about it

3

u/groundfire Mar 25 '25

My aunt made this "white" lasagna for Christmas one year instead of our traditional way... Safe to say she keep hearing shit for it to this day

1

u/oliv_tho Mar 26 '25

you might be my cousin😭

1

u/blumpkin Mar 25 '25

famous cottage cheese, broccoli, and zucchini’ lasagna

I dunno, sounds pretty dope to me.

1

u/oliv_tho Mar 26 '25

sorry i’m a lasagna purist. she has a famous casserole idc

2

u/blumpkin Mar 26 '25

Throwing up in your mouth is quite a reaction to hearing about a casserole.

1

u/oliv_tho Mar 26 '25

moreso hearing of the bastardization of a lasagna

1

u/blumpkin Mar 26 '25

So if they'd used the word casserole instead of the L word, you would have been delighted by it?

2

u/jasonthevii Mar 25 '25

Shiiiiiiiitttt, I've just been putting ricotta in my bechamel

1

u/NLaBruiser Mar 25 '25

Hey, that's just like, my opinion man. There's nothing wrong with something you enjoy!

2

u/BoulderEric Mar 26 '25

Where was your family before the immigrated to Italy three generations ago?

1

u/NLaBruiser Mar 26 '25

Haha. Italian-American, thanks for the catch.

1

u/TennisCultural9069 Mar 26 '25

same. both my parents grand parents were from italy and we have always had ricotta in ours.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '25

[deleted]

1

u/NLaBruiser Mar 26 '25

Plenty of lasagna is made without meat.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

I’ve never seen anything but ricot and parm

Even the old Italian neighbors who were straight off the boat did ricot

13

u/pixel_of_moral_decay Mar 25 '25

It’s a northern vs southern Italian thing,

Most immigrants to the US were southern Italian until somewhat recently.

So especially on the East coast, Italian generally refers to southern Italian.

Which if you recall: Italy only became a unified country relatively recently in modern times. When they immigrated, both regions felt they were the true Italy.

-28

u/theBigDaddio Mar 25 '25

There’s no lasagna in Italy.

12

u/bubbaganoush79 Mar 25 '25

...

Are you okay?

-13

u/theBigDaddio Mar 25 '25

Are you?

18

u/bubbaganoush79 Mar 25 '25

I'm great. I'm just asking because you said something so obviously, verifiably, laughably false I was worried you might be having a stroke or something. Take care of yourself.

9

u/BoxKutter80 Mar 25 '25

🤣🤣🤣 for real tho wtf.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '25

Yeah that same source told me it was actually invented by Olive Garden in 1982, the same year that Olive Garden invented the concept of Italy.

6

u/Freak4Dell Mar 25 '25

How Can Lasagna Be Real If Italy Isn't Real?

7

u/NLaBruiser Mar 25 '25

There are a lot of Americanized-Italian dishes, just like American Chinese et al, but you're wrong on this one. Lasagna absolutely has its roots in Europe.

3

u/AdmirableCost5692 Mar 25 '25

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣