Béchamel sauce

Questo post è disponibile anche in: Italian

The Béchamel sauce is one of the most famous sauces, mainly used in the preparation of important dishes like lasagna, cannelloni and flans.

The Béchamel sauce seems to have originated in France, the name derives from the Marquis Louis de Bechamel who invented it in the early 1700s but there are conflicting opinions on this.

But it seems that this recipe was already known in Italy and precisely in Tuscany.

During 1300 a recipe similar at béchamel appears in a famous Italian cookbook, by an anonymous Tuscan cook.

Others, affirm that the Béchamel recipe spread in France edited by the figure of Caterina de ‘Medici, who revealed to French cooks the secret to obtain a delicate sauce used to bind some foods together.

INGREDIENTS FOR OBTAIN 500 GR.OF BESCHIAMEL SAUCE:

• 40 gr. butter
• 500 ml. of milk
• 40 gr. flour
• nutmeg to taste
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

PREPARATION

In a saucepan, you heat the milk without bring to boil and then put aside.

In another pan, add the butter and melt at moderate flame for a few minutes.

Remove the butter from the cooker and add the flour sifted, stir vigorously by a fork to avoid the formation of lumps, then put on the cooker at low heat.

Then, add the hot milk and flavour with a pinch of salt, pepper and a nice grating of nutmeg.

Continue to mix over medium low heat, until you’ll obtained a sauce dense.

If the béchamel sauce will have too liquid consistency, to make it denser, you must mixing separately a part of flour with a part of butter and then add at the sauce.

If the sauce will be too firm, just add some hot milk necessary.

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