The white sauce for lasagne

[ImaWurzel]

I only have 1 recipe book and i was wondering how you make the white sauce in lasagne. I am bad cos i normally use the jars of both red and white sauce. Can anyone help me? Thought i would come on here and ask cos you lot always have sensible ideas and always help each other.

Melt about 25g of butter in a pan. Add plain flour until you have a ball of dough like "stuff" (it is called a rue (sp)). Slowlly add milk stirring all the time until you have enough sauce of the right consistency, then add grated cheese, a teaspoon of mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

It's a roux sauce. You melt 1 oz of butter in a saucepan. Once melted, you remove it from the heat and stir in 1 tbsp plain flour until it forms a firm ball in the centre. (Add more flour bit by bit, if necessary.) Using about 1/2 pint initially, stir in a tbsp of milk at a time (to avoid lumps). Return to heat and bring to the boil stirring all the time. Boil for a few minutes to ensure that all the flour has cooked through and then add more milk until you have the thickness of sauce you want. Add cheese at the end - usually makes it go a bit thicker...

Good luck!

We do this: Melt 1oz butter, stir in 1oz of flour. Stir stir stir for about 30 seconds. Have about a pint of milk at the ready and mix it in bit by bit. We usually put a bay leaf, some salt and some peppercorns in when all the milk is in. Bring to the boil gently and when it starts to thicken you're done. We're not exact with measurements anymore, so just add more milk if you think it's too thick, or stop adding if you think it's looking really runny. Check your seasoning before you put it on the lasagne. I think some people put cheese in but we prefer to top the lasagne with grated parmesan.

Make sure you use 'butter' butter rather than marg etc,as the sauce doesn't thicken as much.I always put a little grated cheese into my sauce ,not original I know but we love our Lasagne cheesy in our house

Thank you for that. Think i got most of that in my cupboards, axcept the mustard, DH loves the stuff,i'm not so keen. how about the red sauce? i normally brown my mince and onions, add chopped mushrooms and a tin of chopped tomatoes and a splash of worcester (sp) sauce and a jar of red. Is that odd? oh and DH loves spices so i also add a tsp of curry powder. I know it's weird doing that. Might not do that tonight and see if he notices.

Butter as in willow? I always put cheese on top but more on one side cos DH not fond of cheese. Reckons it tastes like rubber! Hmm, Wonder how often he chews rubber?

if you have mushrooms, tomatoes etc as well as the mince there should be no need for the jar of 'red' at all - you've already made the beginnings of a bolognese, although depending how thick it is it may need a bit of beef stock and/or tomato puree though.

Also try frying finely chopped onion and garlic (plus celery and carrot if you like) in the pan before adding the mince to brown.

i always whisk mine with an electric whisk i do the flour and butter but as normal and just pour in all the milk and whisk with electric whisk and i never have lumps even dp managed to do it today

Hi Wurzel, there's hundreds of different ways of doing the red sauce. If I'm using a jar, I don't add anything else whereas you add tinned tomatoes. I put in a finely chopped courgette - my DS doesn't like mushrooms ( how can anyone not like mushrooms) I haven't tried mustard in the white sauce but always add a good stack of extra strong cheese. I might try the mustard - could be interesting.
Once you can do a basic roux though (which is a doddle once you've done it a couple of times) you can pretty much mix and match.
My only essential for anything pasta-ish is garlic bread. Mmmmmm...... garlic.....

I don't like the fact that this thread comes right above the 'have you seen your dp masturbating' thread.

yeuch

I love garlic bread but DH hates the stuff. I did do it from scratch last night, turned out ok but added bit too much milk. Learn by mistakes though! For extra crispy topping i sprinkle mushed up plain crisps on top then cover them with cheese. I didn't get any red, just used tomatoes,worcester(sp) and tom puree.
Dh seemed to like it. I just wanted to actually cook lasagne from scratch.(did use no cook sheets) Must get some more recipe books.I do cook a few things from scratch, but do tend to add packet mixes and things. Yes i am lazy. but hopefully i will start to cook more fresh when we have lo's.

Nice one Wurzel (says Peaches, trying to pretend she hasn't heard Pointydog lowering the tone ) I'm still learning from mistakes....

tip for y'all - just dollop sour cream and grate some cheese on top. takes about 1 minute and everyone comments on how yummy it is

Cottage Cheese works well and is yummy.