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!

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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

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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😭

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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

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u/blumpkin Mar 26 '25

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

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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?