Besciamella
(White or cream
sauce)is the third of the three most popular sauces of
southern Italy. As a white sauce, it can be used in a variety of ways including
being poured over pasta in the traditional manner or as the basic sauce for
white lasagna which, by the way is just wonderful.
Ingredients for 4
persons:
Butter or
margarine: 1/4 pound
Cooked ham (sliced and coarsely chopped): 4 ounces
Fresh milk: 6
cups
Heavy cream: 6-8
ounces
Green peas (fresh or frozen): 1/4 cup
Nutmeg (ground): a pinch
Black pepper (ground): 1/4
teaspoon
Parmesan and/or romano cheese (grated): 1/2 cup
Wheat flour (corn starch if you can't tolerate gluten): start with 1/2 cup
How to do it:
In a small bowl, mix the flour (corn starch) and enough
milk to make a thick liquid. This will be your thickening agent.
In a 4-quart sauce sauce pan, melt the butter or margarine and sauté the ham
for 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the milk, heavy cream, and peas, nutmeg, grated cheese.
Heat this mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until it comes to
the boiling point.
While stirring rapidly with a whisk, slowly pour your thickening agent into the
ham, milk, cream, and peas.
Stir constantly until it comes to a boil.
Let it boil for two minutes, always stirring.
Salt to taste.
Note:
Your sauce needs to be thick. If it is a little thin, just stir in some more
thickening agent, but not too much at a time. Its real easy to get
besciamella too thick. Serve over pasta. In my opinion, rigatoni is best
suited for this sauce because the holes are big and they trap the sauce.
