Anne Morgan This is Delia Smith’s white sauce for lasagne recipe, the cream sauce from her lasagne al forno for 8 people. You whisk milk, butter and flour together in one pan, then sieve the sauce and beat in double cream and nutmeg. Allow about 30 minutes, and you can make it ahead.
Delia rebuilt her lasagne the Italian way in How to Cook Book Three, and this sauce is part of it. She calls it a cream sauce, because the double cream goes in at the end. In other words, it is a béchamel sauce for lasagne, made in her all-in-one way.
This lasagne white sauce makes about 1.7 litres, by our own sum. So it is enough for four layers in a deep roasting tin. For a smaller lasagne, her first version is in the FAQs below.
To build the whole dish, follow her full lasagne recipe with its slow-cooked ragù. That page also shows how she lays the sheets to fill the tin.
Delia Smith White Sauce for Lasagne
Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy8
servings5
minutes25
minutes430
kcalMilk, butter and flour whisked in one pan, then sieved and finished with double cream and nutmeg. It makes enough for a lasagne for 8 people.
Ingredients
- For the cream sauce:
175ml (6fl oz) double cream
1.5 litres (2½ pints) milk
175g (6oz) butter, plus a little extra for greasing
110g (4oz) plain flour
¼ whole nutmeg, grated
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Pan: Put the milk, butter, flour and some salt and pepper in a large, thick-based saucepan. Everything goes in cold.
- Whisk: Put the pan over a gentle heat. Whisk all the time with a balloon whisk until the sauce comes up to simmering point and thickens.
- Cook: Turn the heat as low as it will go and let the sauce cook gently for about 10 minutes.
- Finish: Sieve the sauce into a bowl, then beat in the cream. Taste it, add more seasoning if it needs it, and grate in the nutmeg.
- Layer: In a well-buttered tin, cover each quarter of the ragù with a fifth of the sauce, then mozzarella and pasta sheets. After four layers, spread the last fifth on top and cover it with Parmesan.
Notes
- Cold milk is her golden rule for any all-in-one sauce, as How to Cook Book One explains. If you infuse the milk first, let it get completely cold.
- In the same book, she says a lasagne sauce needs only 2 or 3 minutes on the heat, because it keeps cooking in the oven. Here she gives it about 10.
FAQs
How much sauce do I need for a smaller lasagne?
Her first lasagne al forno, in the Complete Cookery Course, serves 6 and needs less sauce. It uses 725ml milk, 75g butter, 50g plain flour and 75ml double cream, with nutmeg.
That is enough for a tin of about 18 x 24cm. You make it the same way: whisk it, cook it gently for 10 minutes, sieve it, then add the cream.
The 1983 edition of the book used 850ml milk and 150ml single cream instead, with the same butter and flour.
Is this the same as a béchamel?
Very nearly. Delia explains that butter and flour cooked together form the base of the classic white sauce called béchamel.
The roux way melts the butter first, then stirs in the flour and adds the milk. Her all-in-one way puts everything in cold, and she says the finished sauce is the same.
The double cream and nutmeg at the end are what make this one a cream sauce.
How do I stop it going lumpy?
Whisk hard, and keep whisking until the sauce thickens. Delia’s own advice is to “whisk like mad” as it heats.
The butter matters too. She explains that flour blended with fat gives a smooth sauce, while hot liquid and flour without fat cause lumps.
If a few lumps still appear, don’t worry. She reminds us that this is why sieves were invented, and this recipe sieves the sauce anyway.
Does the sauce have cheese in it?
No, this sauce has no cheese at all. In her lasagne al forno, the mozzarella goes between the layers and the Parmesan goes on top.
Her spinach ricotta lasagne is different. There, she stirs 50g of Parmesan into the white sauce before the layers go in.
Can I make the sauce ahead without a skin?
You can. Lay clingfilm right on the surface of the sauce, so that no skin forms. Delia keeps it warm over a pan of barely simmering water.
To make it a long way ahead, warm it again the same way and keep the clingfilm on until you need it. If it has thickened a little, whisk in a splash of milk or cream.
The whole lasagne can also be built well in advance, she says, so it is ready for the oven.
