When you are faced with the question of how to make the white lasagna sauce the answers can be as varied as the individual cook. Some people like to take this favorite dish and change it up with chicken in place of beef. White Lasagna sauce is really nothing more than the typical white sauce binding agent with Italian seasonings is. White sauce is used in a variety of dishes including casseroles and lasagna.
Basic Problems
Making white sauce comes with some inherent problems, most notably the time it takes to cook, pasty flavor and annoying lumps. If you have found these to be an issue with your white sauce, here are a couple of handy tips. First brown your flour in butter to take care of the pasty flavor. Blend flour into hot butter, stirring constantly. Be careful or the paste will scorch!
One reason white lasagna sauce is so time consuming is the addition of liquids. Traditional methods call for slowly adding water or milk while stirring constantly. This is also the reason you often wind up with a lumpy sauce. To deal with this problem simply heat your liquid while browning the flour.
Using preheated liquid will address both the time and lumpy issue. You will still need to whisk the mixture frequently, however it will buy you a little time to work on the rest of the dish.
More White Sauce Variations and Ideas
After learning how to make the white lasagna sauce, you can use this sauce as the base for all kinds of flavorful recipes. For example, adding half a cup of grated Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese and stirring it until the cheese melts results in a magnificent cheese sauce. You can add a couple of tablespoons of chopped jalapenos if you want to make nacho cheese sauce.
Adding four teaspoons of grated prepared horseradish and a pinch of dry mustard to a cup of thin white sauce results in horseradish sauce. You can add a teaspoon of mustard to a cup of thin white sauce to make a sauce which is great with ham, or add a couple of teaspoons of grated onion for a sauce which is lovely served with crab cakes, fish cakes, potato pancakes, meat loaf or salmon loaf.
Even More Ideas for White Sauce
Add half a cup of sour cream to a cup of white sauce to make sour cream sauce. This is lovely with hash browns, waffles, or cheese blintzes. Add a teaspoon each of chopped dill and chives to convert it into a baked potato topping.
You can add white sauce to cooked chopped chicken and mixed veggies, along with a teaspoon of chicken soup base (or bouillon) and some rubbed sage. Use this mixture to fill a piecrust and crimp the pie topping crust over the base. Bake for forty-five minutes at 350 degrees F and you will have made a wonderful chicken pot pie.
Use white sauce as a starter for making creamed soups, or add it to a pureed vegetable with cream to begin a homemade soup recipe. Add some roast drippings and soy sauce, Kitchen Bouquet or Gravy Master to white sauce to make white gravy, or add a teaspoon of soup base or bouillon to make a different kind of gravy.
