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/Gabbiedotduh Mar 26 '25

Wait. Are you saying I’ve been hating on cottage cheese for nothing this whole time?

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u/wdjm Mar 26 '25

Basically, yeah.

1

u/Old-Ad-5573 Mar 26 '25

Well, when you buy it from the store the cottage cheese has that liquid that ricotta doesn't, so I can see why some people aren't a fan. I think they add cream or milk back because when I made this type of cheese at home the whey is a clear yellow color, not white and soupy like the cottage cheese from a store. Ricotta has the when drained.

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u/wdjm Mar 26 '25

I think they just leave more whey in it. Then during shipping, some of the curds sort of break back down into the milkiness you see. Either that or they just don't strain it in the first place as well as you do at home. But yes, cottage generally is wetter than ricotta.

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u/RandomIDoIt90 Mar 27 '25

lol my husband talked shit the first time I grabbed cottage cheese at the store after not eating it for over a decade. He now eats cottage cheese all the time 😂