Béchamel Sauce | How to Make a Basic White Sauce

Béchamel sauce has French origin and has become part of Italian culinary tradition for a very long time. It’s also known as White Sauce or Mother Sauce because many sauces are prepared with béchamel as a base, such as Mornay, which is a somewhat richer version.

Lasagna and Cannelloni would not exist without béchamel and some pasta recipes or vegetables au gratin require it.

You can buy ready-made béchamel but you have to know that homemade béchamel sauce is very easy and fast to make. The ingredients and the steps are few, just follow some rules.

Béchamel Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

Directions

The ingredients of this Béchamel sauce recipe are for 500ml of sauce. If you need a liter, doubled the ingredients. If you want a more liquid suauce, reduce the flour and butter (for example 30g and 30g). IMPORTANT: the fat part (the butter) and the flour, according to the original recipe of béchamel sauce, must have the same weight.

You will need a high edged pot and a balloon whisk.

Get ready the ingredients (1). In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat (2). Add the flour all at once (optional: use a flour sieve. We use it because in this way we are sure that no lumps are formed) and mix quickly (but very quickly) with a whisk (3).

Stir until the mixture is smooth and without lumps. This is the time when you have to be more careful. Cook for 1 minute so the flour becomes tastier and absorb the fats. The mixture of butter and flour is called roux and it should be a nice golden color; you can also use it to thicken other sauces or gravy.

To prepare béchamel sauce, add the milk to the roux while stirring rapidly. It must be cold and should be added at once (4). Cook mixing until a fairly thick consistency (about 10/15 minutes) (4). The sauce is ready when it sticks to the spoon. At the end of cooking, add a pinch of salt and grated nutmeg (6). Béchamel sauce is ready to use.