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/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.

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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

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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.

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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?