The Lasagna Bechamel Experiment

Today I went into the kitchen and had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.  I had gorgonzola cheese left over, and a few mushrooms, and hey, those go together great, I thought.  Maybe a cheesy base of some kind with a mushroom sauce on top?  But what to put it on?  I went to the pantry, where I found a variety of half-empty boxes of pasta.  One was lasagna noodles.  Hey, thought I, I could make a lasagna out of that.  So I got to work.

I usually make lasagna with tons of cheese and a simple tomato sauce.  Sometimes I add veggies.  But I have never made lasagna bechamel before.  Bechamel, as you all know, is a basic white sauce made from butter, flour, and milk (or cream).  In the northern parts of Italy, lasagna made with bechamel is common, unlike the central areas of the country, where tomato sauce is more prevalant (as I've learned by looking it up on the interwebs just now).  Apparently, there are other areas where lasagna is frequently made with pesto instead.  The variety is, apparently, endless.

So anyhooo, I got to work on all my sauces as my lasagna noodles cooked.  I made a mushroom ragu with finely minced carrots, celery, green pepper, and garlic, plenty of olive oil, some dried herbs, and of course the mushrooms, sliced.  I also add some smooshed tomatoes.  I made a gorgonzola sauce similar to a bechamel with milk, flour, and olive oil, beaten egg, and a few miscellaneous things.  Then I made a classic bechamel also.

I layered the lasagna with pasta, bechamel, pasta, gorgonzola sauce, pasta, bechamel, pasta, mushroom ragu, pasta, gorgonzola, pasta, and topped the whole thing with more bechamel, and into the oven it went.  I had a small pan of it, so I cooked it at a medium-high temp (about 400) for about 25 minutes; if making a full lasagna pan, I would bake it at a lower temp for longer.  When it looked done (meaning the edges were golden brown and bubbly), I pulled it out and let it rest for about 5 minutes.  Then we dug in!

And, happily, it was delicious!  I guess you can't go wrong with cheese, mushrooms, and white sauce.  The egg in the cheese sauce helped thicken it and give it structure, and the bechamel was creamy in the center and nice and golden brown on the edges.  The mushroom layer was garlicky and delicious.  I was worried that the gorgonzola would be too strong and overpower everything else, but actually it was extremely subtle and subdued.  I could have added a lot more, actually. 

I am thrilled with the way my lasagna experiement turned out.  My parents are coming to visit next month, and I think I might make this, or a version of it, when they are here.  I'll definitely have to add it to my repertoire.  So, take it from me, lasagna bechamel needn't be intimidating - it's actually just as easy as regular lasagna, and certainly just as delicious! 

Happy eating!