# Lasagna: ricotta or bechamel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 12, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556 "2019-08-12T14:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/1 "2019-08-12T14:44:34Z")
When you make (or just eat) lasagna, do you prefer ricotta or bechamel? Do you use both? Neither? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/2 "2019-08-12T14:55:17Z")
Selected “Ricotta” but only because I’ve never had the version with béchamel. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/3 "2019-08-12T14:55:37Z")
For standard lasagna: bechamel, pasta (despite what some Spaniards appear to believe it’s not lasagna if it doesn’t have the flat planks of pasta which say “lasagna” on the box, excuse me while I switch back from werewolf form), tomato sauce, mince meat, an amount that an Italian would consider offensively small of medium-strength grated cheese (a strong cow’s cheese, say; not as strong as a peccorino romano or a parmigiano, but you should notice you’ve encountered it, eh?). Minced bacon optional. No ricotta. Lasagna with other fillers will have the cheesiness adjusted and may get bechamel instead of tomato for the filler itself (spinach lasagna, for example) or even no sauce (zuchinni lasagna works well with no filler-sauce). I grew up with Barcelona’s “traditional Christmas menus”, which depending on who you ask inspired Rossini’s canelloni or copied them: the canelloni I grew up eating on Boxing Day use the same pasta as the lasagna, the same bechamel, the same cheese on top (no tomato for the filler though). ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/4 "2019-08-12T14:59:48Z")
If I’m going to go the bechamel sauce route, I’m making pastitsio, not lasagna. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/5 "2019-08-12T15:05:20Z")
My first foray into lasagna was using a recipe from Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cookbook - rather painstaking, but quite luscious. It called for bechamel, so that’s what I used. But I’ll occasionally just make a lasagna with whatever I feel like using for the layers. If I do that, sure, I might use ricotta. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/6 "2019-08-12T15:22:51Z")
Small curd cottage cheese for me. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/7 "2019-08-12T15:36:00Z")
Both are fine, but I prefer the bolognese-bechamel version. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/8 "2019-08-12T15:36:53Z")
Bechamel of course, what’s wrong with you heathens? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/9 "2019-08-12T15:37:24Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > Small curd cottage cheese for me. > > Dennis Agree ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/10 "2019-08-12T15:38:50Z")
I don’t know what béchamel is. When I make lasagna a single layer of ricotta is required. Also included are parmesan and, of course, mozzarella. (Oddly, I never use ricotta in any other way. If I buy ricotta it’s because I am making lasagna.) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/11 "2019-08-12T15:43:08Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I don’t know what béchamel is. When I make lasagna a single layer of ricotta is required. Also included are parmesan and, of course, mozzarella. > (Oddly, I never use ricotta in any other way. If I buy ricotta it’s because I am making lasagna.) It’s a white sauce, used in lasagne. In Italy. Ricotta is too thick, claggy and cheesy. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/12 "2019-08-12T15:44:15Z")
I also did not actively add that little slash thing over the E in béchamel, it just popped up automatically. Spell check continues to amuse this old guy. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/13 "2019-08-12T16:11:28Z")
béchamel is my favorite sauce. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/14 "2019-08-12T17:27:44Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > I don’t know what béchamel is. When I make lasagna a single layer of ricotta is required. Also included are parmesan and, of course, mozzarella. > (Oddly, I never use ricotta in any other way. If I buy ricotta it’s because I am making lasagna.) I voted ricotta. I know what bechamel is but I’ve never heard of using it in lasagna. **bobot** I also use ricotta when I make manicotti. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/15 "2019-08-12T17:28:50Z")
I’m another cottage cheese user. Which I suppose, of the two options, is closer to ricotta, but ricotta is too fancy for me. I’ll also have mozerella in other layers. And lots of other stuff. EDIT: For some reason, in the US, it’s common for red lasagna to be made with meat, and for white lasagna (with bechamel replacing the tomato sauce) to be made with veggies. If a menus says “vegetarian lasagna”, it probably means the white stuff, even though you could just take a red recipe and leave out the meat and still have a perfectly good dish, and you could likewise add ham or bacon to the white stuff and have another perfectly good dish. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/16 "2019-08-12T17:30:21Z")
Ricotta, but not straight ricotta: a mixture of ricotta, beaten raw egg, herbs, and a little bit of milk. Thin enough to spread before cooking but it firms up by the time the lasagna is cooked. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/17 "2019-08-12T21:07:30Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Selected “Ricotta” but only because I’ve never had the version with béchamel. Same here, As a matter of fact, I’m just about to start preparing lasagna from a recipe which features ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses, as well as spinach and leftover meat from yesterday’s roast chicken dinner. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/18 "2019-08-12T21:23:52Z")
I never even knew lasagne with ricotta was a thing until … some time last year I think. On these boards. So, bechamel all the way. Or, to use good old ozzie no-frills terminology - White. Sauce. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/19 "2019-08-12T21:27:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Both are fine, but I prefer the bolognese-bechamel version. Agreed. When I’m going through the effort to make a slow-simmered bolognese sauce, definitely bechamel. When I am making a quick ground beef and/or sausage sauce, ricotta. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556/20 "2019-08-12T21:38:20Z")
I don’t use either. I don’t like ricotta, and I’ve made it with and without bechamel and personally I can’t really tell the difference, so I don’t bother. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lasagna-ricotta-or-bechamel/838556.md?page=2)