White Lasagna Recipe: Tips for Making White Lasagna
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Nov 9, 2024 • 4 min read
Learn to make a creamy, decadent white lasagna with homemade béchamel sauce and two types of cheese. Pair the creamy dish with a crisp white wine to cut through the richness.
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What Is White Lasagna?
White lasagna is a baked pasta dish that combines béchamel sauce, lasagna noodles, Italian sausage, and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. The classic dish is creamy, cheesy, and decadent while still easy to put together on a weeknight. Lasagna is a family-friendly dish, and building the layers is a great way to encourage kids to get involved in the kitchen.
If you like to meal plan or prep ahead of time, you can cook this lasagna most of the way, cool it to room temperature, and then refrigerate it. When you’re ready to eat, simply broil the lasagna until the cheese is bubbly and the edges are golden.
5 Variations on White Lasagna
Add a variety of flavor and nutrients to your white lasagna with these easy variations.
- 1. Butternut squash: Sliced butternut squash adds richness and extra nutrients to a white lasagna recipe. Simply swap half the noodles for thinly sliced butternut squash to make this variant. Try switching up the herbs: Sage and thyme pair well with winter squash.
- 2. Cream cheese: Add a little cream cheese to the ricotta mixture for a tangy American take on this Italian classic.
- 3. Poultry: Instead of pork sausage, use chicken sausage for a white chicken lasagna. If you don’t have chicken sausage on hand, mix ground chicken with garlic, thyme, sage, salt, and pepper to make your own sausage.
- 4. Spinach: Adding frozen chopped spinach to the ricotta in the recipe is a great way to get your daily greens in; just make sure you squeeze out any excess moisture before incorporating it. Baby spinach or fresh spinach bunches work too, provided you sauté the spinach beforehand.
- 5. Zucchini: For an easy summer-inspired white lasagna, layer thinly sliced zucchini in with the noodles. (Adding zucchini is also a great way to incorporate fiber into the lasagna.) Roast the veggies first to remove excess moisture.
4 Tips for Making White Lasagna
Here’s how to make the creamiest white lasagna at home.
- 1. Season the béchamel. Warming the milk with an onion piqué (a bay leaf attached to an onion with a clove) is a classic French technique that adds flavor to a basic white sauce.
- 2. Incorporate fresh herbs. Chopped herbs, like basil and parsley, help balance the creaminess in this lasagna recipe, doing the work that the acidity of fresh tomatoes might in a traditional red-sauce lasagna.
- 3. Use fresh or no-boil noodles. You can find fresh lasagna noodles in many supermarkets, which significantly cut down the cooking time. If those aren’t available, look for dry noodles labeled “no boil” to skip the additional step of boiling and draining the noodles before assembling the lasagna.
- 4. Let the lasagna rest before slicing. As delicious and inviting as a fresh, hot lasagna looks right out of the oven, letting it rest before you slice allows the layers to set up. Rest the lasagna for about fifteen minutes before cutting into it.
Classic White Lasagna Recipe
makes
prep time
15 mintotal time
1 hrcook time
45 minIngredients
For the béchamel:
For the filling:
Note: The total time does not include 15 minutes of inactive time.
- 1
Slice the onion in half.
- 2
Use one whole clove to attach a bay leaf to each onion half by piercing through the bay leaf and the first layer of onion with the pointed end of the clove.
- 3
Place the onion halves and milk in a large saucepan and warm over low heat, taking care not to boil or scald the milk.
- 4
Make a roux by melting the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- 5
Whisk in the flour and cook the roux until it is lightly golden but not brown, about 2–3 minutes.
- 6
Remove the onion from the milk and gradually whisk the warmed milk into the roux.
- 7
Stir in the fresh nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
- 8
Reduce the heat to medium and allow the béchamel sauce to thicken, about 5 minutes.
- 9
Reduce the heat to its lowest setting and cover the sauce while you prepare the remaining ingredients.
- 10
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, crumble the sausage and cook until browned, about 8 minutes.
- 11
Strain excess fat and liquid from the cooked sausage crumbles and set aside.
- 12
Place the ricotta cheese in a small bowl and add the grated Parmesan, chopped parsley, basil, oregano, and grated garlic. Stir to combine, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
- 13
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 14
Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with a tablespoon of olive oil.
- 15
Ladle about ½ cup of the béchamel sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish.
- 16
Top the sauce with a single layer of noodles, followed by half of the ricotta cheese mixture, half of the sausage, and one-third of the shredded cheese, followed by a ¼ cup of the béchamel.
- 17
Add another layer of noodles, then top with ½ cup of the béchamel, the remaining ricotta mixture, the remaining sausage, and another third of the shredded cheese.
- 18
Finish the lasagna with a top layer of noodles. Pour the remaining sauce in an even layer over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the shredded cheese.
- 19
Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake until bubbling, about 30 minutes.
- 20
Remove the foil and bake until the top layer of béchamel and mozzarella is bubbling and crispy and golden brown on the edges, about 15 more minutes.
- 21
Remove the lasagna from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
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