The Secret to the “Hands Down Best,” Most Creamy Lasagna Is in the Sauce (2024)

There are countless ways to make the classic comfort food that is lasagna. Our site alone has more than 200 recipes in any variation you can imagine. Want to serve lasagna in a unique way? Try lasagna soup or pull out your Bundt pan. Craving a seasonal flavor? Throw in some butternut squash or artichoke and spinach. You can even skip the noodles or use a different kind of pasta entirely. It's lasagna's world, we're just living in it.

But the "Best" Lasagna recipe I recently came across introduces a trick I hadn't yet seen or tried. And I'm so glad I found it, because it made the creamiest dish I've tasted yet (and I've tasted a lot of lasagna). The hack here is to take the typical ingredient—ricotta—and turn it into a secret sauce that elevates the whole experience.

Ricotta Béchamel Is the Secret to the Best Lasagna

As creator (and Allrecipes Senior Culinary Producer) Nicole McLaughlin says in the intro to her Best Lasagna with Ricotta Bechamel, "This recipe combines popular, easy-to-find, family-friendly ingredients, with an old-school, authentic Italian technique to make this lasagna unique and over the top. The creamy béchamel melts in your mouth and together with the fresh herbs, it really balances out the hearty flavor of the meat sauce."

Of course we're used to seeing ricotta cheese in lasagna, but it usually gets awkwardly spread across each layer in uneven piles. And we've seen classic flour-butter-milk béchamel sauce in certain variations, too (like in another favorite of mine, lasagna Bolognese). But the idea of combining the two into a sauce that gets perfectly distributed for extra decadent results is..."Something magical," as Nicole puts it. I had to try it.

How to Make Ricotta Béchamel

Making the secret sauce for this creamy comfort food is simple. It starts out like a traditional béchamel: Prep a roux by melting butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes, making sure to continue whisking so nothing sticks or burns. Slowly pour in the milk and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce your heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Once you season, remove the sauce from the heat and whisk in the ricotta until smooth. Let it stand for 10 minutes before using it to build the lasagna. (Or whip it up the day before, béchamel can easily stored in the refrigerator for a day!).

Side note: This rich, cheesy sauce would also be lovely to blanket over sweet potato gnocchi and mushroom or butternut squash ravioli.

How to Make the Best Lasagna

The recipe calls for a flavorful meat sauce with fresh herbs, the ricotta béchamel, al dente noodles, and mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

As Nicole suggests in the video tutorial, I made the sauces ahead. It makes the whole labor of love seem a little less daunting and saves time, energy, and dishes on lasagna day. When I tested this recipe out for the first time, I prepped the meat sauce and the béchamel on a Saturday afternoon for our Sunday pasta dinner.

Once it was T-minus 2 hours until mealtime, I gently warmed the sauces back up, boiled the noodles, and assembled the lasagna—layer by gooey, cheesy layer. Having prepared the sauces in advance made the process seamless, and I loved not having to worry about spreading spoonfuls of ricotta. An hour after its trip to the 375-degree-F oven, and a torturous 15 minutes of rest, it was time to dig in. My first bite was creamy, dreamy, and oh-so-delicious. It had a velvety feel from the white sauce balanced with big, bright flavor from the red. The hearty chew from the noodles and meat rounded it all out, along with the signature cheese pull of the melted mozzarella.

Nicole took the words right out of my mouth in her video: "Perfection...Smells like Sunday."

It is the ultimate special occasion meal, as another review stated: "Absolutely Amazing! This is now our family Christmas Eve dinner tradition and my family's first request for other special occasions!"

At the same time, it's also "worth the time, worth the effort," as Nicole says, to treat yourself to on any cozy weekend at home. "You've never had lasagna like this before." Just don't skimp on the secret sauce.