This is a classic Italian bechamel recipe made with three main ingredients: butter, all purpose flour, and whole milk. It's flavored with dried nutmeg, and salt and pepper of course! The butter and flour are combined in a pan on the stove over medium heat, and the milk is added slowly so that the bechamel doesn't clump. You can even adjust the bechamel consistency by reducing or increasing the butter and flour quantitites. The result is a smooth, silky sauce ready to be used in lasagne, mac and cheese, or whatever your heart desires!
I feel like bechamel is one of those sauces you need in your arsenal. I've had to make it countless of times, and it's so nice to have a foolproof recipe to reference.
The most common dish to use bechamel (or besciamella in Italian) is to use it in lasagne (it works great in my one pan classic lasagna recipe). But I've also used it in Italian baked pasta with a bolognese sauce and rustici (a savory street food pastry).
Let's make it!
No clumps here!
The biggest problem people have when making bechamel is that they can't get it to a smooth consistency - sometimes it ends up lumpy. To avoid this, you can do a few things:
- Make sure to heat up the milk before using it. Using cold milk will cause the butter/flour mixture to seize up
- Add the milk in batches - dumping all the milk in at once will shock the hot roux, causing clumps that are hard to whisk out
- Use a whisk! I know a used a wooden spoon in my video, but I find using a whisk helps to whisk out any clumps that do form (something a spoon can't do)
Recipe
Foolproof Bechamel Recipe with Nutmeg
Ingredients
- 1 litre whole milk
- 75 grams unsalted butter see recipe notes
- 75 grams all purpose flour see recipe notes
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg or to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the milk to a saucepan over medium heat and warm it up. The milk should be warm, but not boiling.
- In another saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
- Once melted, add in the flour. With a wooden spoon or whisk, mix the flour into the butter until the two ingredients for a smooth consistency. Cook, stirring, for 1–2 minutes. This will get rid of the raw flour taste.
- Add in about ⅓ of the milk to the pan and mix with a whisk. Mix until the milk is completely absorbed into the butter and flour, and a smooth consistency is achieved.
- Add more milk and continue to mix until the mixture is smooth again.
- Add in the milk one last time and mix with the whisk for a few more minutes (about 5 minutes) until the bechamel has thickened up.
- Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Your bechamel is ready to be used for lasagne, mac and cheese or whatever your heart desires!
Recipe Notes
For a thinner bechamel, use 50g each of butter and flour, with 1L of milk.
For a thicker bechamel, use 100g each of butter and flour, with 1L of milk. Heating and Storage If you're going to make the bechamel ahead of time and store it, store it in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. When ready to use, you will most likely be using it in a dish that needs to be cooked/heated, so you can use the bechamel directly from the fridge. If it needs to be heated, place it in a saucepan and gently warm over medium heat until heated through.
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