Ultra-Melty Bechamel Lasagna | Basics with Babish 

havent watched it yet but i am willing to bet that andrew eats it way too hot straight out of the oven because he just is like that

It is easier to avoid lumps in roux-thickened sauces if you take the roux of the heat for a minute and add cold liquid all at once, whisking smooth, and then putting back on the heat, stirring continuously until thickened. Whisking out the lumps while everything is cool prevents early gelatinization of the flour, and thus lumps.

For the béchamel, I recommend putting nutmeg, bay leaves and peppercorns in the milk you will be using, heat it up, let it all cool down, strain it then use it to make the béchamel, makes a deeper flavour in the béchamel.

A friend did both. He actually melts the ricotta into the bechamel . Best of both worlds.

Andy, I love that you mentioned that people have been boiling lasagna noodles for thousands of years, because it is actually true! The first shape of pasta there was in Italy was actually lasagna. In Roman times, if you were a Roman citizen, you would never starve, because you got wheat flour for free. What the average Romans would do is that they would either send it to the baker to get bread, or they would mix it with water and leave it to dry in sheets. That is really how pasta got started in Italy. It was meant to be food you could still have in times of crisis. As for how we ended up with spaghetti and other noodle shaped pastas, that was thanks to the Muslims. In the 8th century, the Abbasid Caliphate - the major Islamic power at the time, had defeated the Chinese Tang Dynasty at the Battle of Talas, and gained a foothold in Central Asia, which meant they had access to the lucrative trade route known as the Silk Road, and from it they gained many goods from China. One of those goods were Chinese style noodles, which spread quickly throughout the Islamic world: from Central Asia to Persia, the Levant, and then to North Africa. A century later, the Aghlabids, a Muslim dynasty from North Africa, invaded and occupied Sicily, bringing these noodles with them, and the local Sicilians thought of them as a type of pasta.

FYI: if you're using dry lasagna sheets you dont have to parboil them. I just add slightly more liquid to my tomato sauce, bake for 30min covered and then uncovered until its brown. It turns out great every time

Walmart, of all places, used to have a nine-layer lasagna under their "Sam's Choice" brand that featured alternating layers of bechamel and a rich, meat-and-tomatoes ragu sauce. Absolutely delicious. Best frozen lasagna I've ever had. So of course it was discontinued.

Béchamel is how my grandmother in Peru would make it for us, it's what made me want to learn to make béchamel and now I can't stop putting it in every pasta dish I can.

Hey, thanks for having subtitles on all your videos:) a lot of people might not notice, but I do, and I'm very grateful you spend the time and/or resources to have these videos accurately captioned for us

3:33 I make my Lasagna with a Ricotta cheese sauce. Simply make a béchamel but incorporate ricotta into it and now you have the best of both worlds.

The cookbook with a section on how you’ve messed it up before is GENIUS!

LOVE lasagna. Garfield got me into it as a kid! Anyone else?🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

I am so happy to see that someone else out there prefers less sauce and more cheese. I often feel like the only one within my peer group.

Sorry you weren't feeling well Andrew, thanks for the great video and hope you're feeling better

Just tasted my very own Ultra-melty Bechamel Lasagna, and it is delicious! I maybe should have increased the sauce recipe a bit because I ran out while I was layering. I also used store-bought lazagna sheets, of which I only needed half of the box. I think the Bechamel sauce is the star here; it really does improve the final product, as Babish claims. I had to use Allspice because I didn't have Nutmeg on hand, but it still tastes great!

Ricotta vs. bechamel is less of an "italian-american vs. italian" thing and more of a "what region of italy did this recipe come from" one. The typical italian-american recipe is a southern one (because most italian immigrants tended to be from there), the bechamel-based ones are from northern italy.

I Really appreciate these recipes! You make things so EASY to understand! BRAVO!!!!

yeah thick cream sauce is lovely, I do it sometimes, but what I also like as an alternative to ricotta is just dry parmesan. that way it absorbs the moisture and basically BECOMES ricotta.

I just made this, best lasagna I have ever had in my life! Fantastic recipe!

I made this recipe tonight and it was absolutely incredible. A huge hit with the gang.

I actually really needed this one.

That is one of the most beautiful lasagnas I’ve ever seen. I’m making this tomorrow

Came at the right time, I wanted to make them this week, thanks

cooking is so forgiving! the lasagna looks great

That's a lovely baking dish.

This is not only the best lasagna I've ever made, it's the best lasagna I've ever had. Team Bechamel all the way.

Ok but lowkey Andrew's videos have got to be some of the most relaxing videos on all of RU-vid

Your book is coming out on my birthday. Very nice

I swear Andrew is slowly turning into Townsends with him discovering the magic of nutmeg and then having to add it into absolutely everything he can.

This looks delicious I'm definitely watching it again to make dinner tonight

Watched your video. Pre-ordered your book. Looking forward to it.

I love bechamel in my pasta al forno/baked ziti. It’s just the perfect gooeyness especially when you let some of the pasta get crunchy which I also really like

This week marks my 12 year anniversary with Babbish in my kitchen. I can't remember what cooking was like without you Andrew, thanks for all the wonderful content and memories. 😁👍

You make your own pasta??? That is the most ASMR level of cooking to me. I love pasta and it’s such a soothing process to watch unfold.

"There are two things in this world to get a freshly grate yourself; nutmeg and cheese" ~ Babish 2023 I second that statement...Nutmeg is even better when you get it straight from the tree 😁

This looks delicious I'm definitely watching it again to make dinner tonight. This looks delicious I'm definitely watching it again to make dinner tonight.

Tanks for the bechamel tip it was helpfull

Yess!! More basics and binging, please! In other words, back to basics :D

Try it with mornaysauce, And then the day after, fried in olive oil, on each side in a pan, and smoked with a smokegun.

Just made this and it turned out absolutely amazing!! Definitely would make again.

Andrew - I'm so happy to see your success. I have "Eat What You Watch" and plan to add more of your books to my collection soon. Keep up the great work!

im drooling bro. need this so bad

I used to only make béchamel lasagna but after your Sopranos episode with lasagna, I now have a strong preference for ricotta and other cheese in place of the béchamel, at least when I’m cooking. Still love mum’s béchamel lasagna.

Who else would like to see Babish recreate Borscht from Eastern Promises or Blood Sausage and Dill Pickle from Modern Family? I'm the only one? Okay then.

I got pasta machine for christmas. I think my husband will love this.

Ahhhh this makes me so happy to see. One of my favorite Italian restaurants had a dish called “lasagna Della Nona” and it was a lasagna made with a béchamel instead of standard. They went out of business around the time of the original BWB Garfield Lasagna episode, and I had tried to replicate the recipe with a béchamel instead, but it didn’t turn out right. Excited to try this one out

Lasagna without ricotta, you have made my wife's life my dude. Hated all the dry only meat and cheese stuff.

Haha, I just watched this for my lasagna, hoping I wouldn't forget anything as well. Got all the way to the top and remember I forgot the Parmesan. Will have to do on the last layer and the top! Can't wait to try it out!

The visceral reaction i had to "sausage-ify" cannot be understated

I use bolognese and béchamel to make a “dry” lasagna. Once baked and set I slice and sauce with a large ladle of marinara.

Great recipe

The backing track restored the hope of the inner child in my heart

In case you don’t upload anything before Saturday, Happy Birthday, Andrew. We share the day, you’re exactly a year older.

When back when I was a teenager I figured out to substitute cottage cheese for ricotta in lasagna. SO much creamier and betterer. Might have to try the béchamel some time, when I have the time.

I prefer bechamel lasagna over the ricotta one. I just have two issues with this whenever I use fresh pasta I boil it first because otherwise it tastes weird. Also, I still like to add carrots and celery to it.

I've been doing bechamel instead of ricotta since seeing Noah Galuten's lasagna video from eight years ago. The only difference between this one and his is his had a paste of pancetta, onion, carrot, and celery mixed into the sauce. Loved that guy's stuff, really wish Tasted was still a thing.

Im not sure its for everyone, but I teaspoon of dijon mustard in a bechamel sauce. Adds a nice peppery note.

ohh we do the same to the cream when me make moussaka but i use corn flower

Sausagify... that is a new and beautiful word that I will use in the future!

As someone who hates ricotta with a burning passion, this... this is the only lasagna I eat and I love it so so much.

Obviously can't speak for everyone, but I wasn't even aware making lasagne with ricotta was a thing. I've only ever seen it (in the UK) as a filling with spinach for making vegetarian lasagne (or ravioli, canneloni etc).

We are remodeling our kitchen. This might have to be the first thing I make when it is all done!!

Bechamel gets better if you keep cooking it for longer than 5 minutes. You do need to keep it moving, avoid pan burns from ruining the color (As you just used white peppers for!), and may need to add more milk while cooking, but getting it more concentrated makes it even greater.

The only time I had lasagna made with a béchamel sauce was in Rome on vacation. It was hands down the best Lasagna I have eaten to date. A second fun fact is that the best lasagna that I ate outside of Italy, was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Who would have known lol.

Best tip from the video, wait 10-20mins before serving when it comes out of oven. Was wondering why my lasgne was always so saucy/runny and layers go missing, eating it immediately after baking was the issue 😂

For ultra cheese explosion: i always blitz brie into my bechamel. Also tried gorgonzola yesterday and it is AMAZING. Just throw it in there and let it melt. Brie needs to be blended in tho

I made a bechemel when i made a white sauce chicken lasagna, i never thought about using it in a red sauce sausage lasagna. Ill definetly try this next time!

If you forget to add the bechamel sauce. I learnt in Chef school. Is by adding the bechamel on top for the last 20 mins remaining cooking time uncovered. Adds a nice touch to it.

I was confused about his statement about ricotta being dry and crumbly in lasagna until I watched further in the episode. If you use a wetter sauce, and more of it, then dry ricotta is not a problem. If you do it like he does, then yeah, it is.

For the bechamel, it's worth heating up the milk with some seasoning to add a lot more flavour to the sauce. Personally, I always heat a pint of milk on low temperature with one whole nutmeg, a bay leaf, and six peppercorns, then use that for the bechamel after pouring it through a sieve and letting it cool a bit. It's a bit more work but the sauce tastes amazing afterwards

Just subbed in bechamel for ricotta in my last lasagna and we were a big fan. Also did half beef half sausage and San marzanos. Now I’m hungry.

I’m getting to this book. I love lasagna

If you find bechamel a bit bland, I add a generous amount of grated gruyere cheese to the sauce, which adds so much flavour to the overall dish. Highly recommend!

my preordered basics with babish can’t come soon enough 😭😭

If you run a dough perforator over the lasagna sheets before assembly, you may be able to cut the massive bubbles down to a minimum.

Bechamel is the only way to go. I prefer the single serving build to order type but I grew up with this

Great video 👍🔝

I think it would be a dream to get basiic book from you, especially since the book comes out on my birthday

I wonder if your “cold with fever” was COVID. I’ve got it and it seems like a quarter of the people I know have it. I hope you’re feeling better. This looks delicious!

I prefer using mascarpone instead of becemel and ricotta. I usually mix it with spinach and its just the best

No excuses Babish. Never forget the béchamel! 😉

Lasagna from scratch like this is definitely on my "must do" list, but I'm doing Tortellini first, spinach and feta is a mushroomy bechamel, maybe just an Alfredo, I can't decide on the sauce.

Hey Babish - With the fact you include Grams / Cups in your recipe's, is it possible to include Celsius conversions for Fahrenheit temperatures also :) Many thanks.

“My cat can’t eat this lasagna” I’m glad someone else is thinking of the real questions.

Delicious!

This episode reminded me of the old Il-Timpano video from the early days.

Adorei o vídeo.

Gee, thanks a lot. I just made lazagna 2 days ago. Now I have to do it all over again.

You can easily swap the sausage for vegetables or for veggie sausage too, if you want to make it vegetarian

What happened with providing a list of ingredients?

This looks amazing and I'm definitely getting that book! I hate ricotta cheese.

Wait, people make lasagna WITHOUT béchamel?

Rather than layering in grated cheese I just mix it with the bechmel. Because of this, aside from the bottom layer I tend to to bechmel first as adding the cheese to that makes it harder to spread without displacing the meat.

I worked at an italian from scratch restaurant for about 4ish years. this is almost exaclty what we did. only different was we used fresh pasta noodles but didn't make them from scratch and we used our bolognese for the filling and made a HUGE pan of carmelized onions and sprinkled those in the layers as well. even though EVERYTHING on the menu was absolutely amazing the lasagna like this remained on of our top sellers. whenever there is a potluck or sometimes a friendly cooking contest at work or wherever I make that exact recipe and have won multiple times or its ALL gone and get people practically begging for my recipe lol one thing you CANNOT sleep on is the bechamel. It ties ALL the ingredients together and makes its a super palatable mouth feel that's highly irresistable. one thing we did he didnt, was after pulling it out in the square is we did one last ladle of marinara over the top, then added some grated (think of the powered parm) and some chopped parsley to garnish. also dont sleep on the last ladle of marinara and garnish. it is AWESOME

Ok, -two- three things: 1. I know he said he likes it dry, *HOWEVER* he is wrong and puts way too little sauce in. 2. Do NOT put milk in little by little into a Bechamel sauce, put it in all at once! The whole reason you're using cold milk is to cool things down rapidly, you WILL get lumps if you add it in piecemeal. 3. Do not pre boil dried (i.e. any store bought) lasagna noodles, you don't need to, all it'll do is make the quality worse and let things burn.

I always add lemon zest and lemon juice to my béchamel sauce

Babbie, ricotta is used in southern Italian lasagna. Bechamel is used in northern Italian lasagna.

I'm pretty sure that lasagne is really delicious. 😊 I'm a bit sad it is not a traditional Italian lasagne though. 😅

This is really delicious. Can you do pasta with Alfredo and tons of cheese. 😋

Ricotta is literally the best part of a lasagna though... I'm not sure I even want to try this recipe, given Babish's staunch anti-ricotta stance. If our tastes are that different, how I can I trust I'd love this one like he does?