Save
Learn how to make homemade white pasta sauce and unlock a world of creamy, comforting and satisfying pasta dishes, perfect for mid-week dinner dishes or feeding a hungry crowd.
Think mac n cheese, lasagne, cannelloni, creamy chicken pasta ... rewarding pasta dishes at your fingertips once you master the simple technique of making this smooth and shiny sauce.
A basic white pasta sauce or bechamel is remarkably easy to make with few staple ingredients and serves as a great vehicle for adding in more flavours when called for, like your favourite cheese.
How to Make White Pasta Sauce
What is a white sauce?
A white sauce is the most basic of sauces. It's essentially milk thickened with a roux. The only ingredients you need are butter and flour in equal quantities, milk and seasoning.
Learn how to make all the mother sauces here.
White sauce pasta recipe
First things first, master making a simple white pasta sauce or Bechamel sauce in our easy recipe and you'll soon be on your way to delicous pasta bakes!
Cheese Sauce Recipe
Once you've mastered a simple white sauce you can throw in extra ingredients to add flavour, like cheese. Parmesan, gruyere and comte are just a few of the cheeses that can be stirred into a finished white sauce until melted to add a rich creamy finish or a whack of umami to your favourite dish.
Macaroni Cheese
Now you've mastered white sauce, try turning it into a real favourite, macaroni cheese. Here's the delicous recipe you need - topped off with crispy breadcrumbs.
How to make vegan white pasta sauce
Vegan bechamel sauce
Believe it or not, it is possible to make a vegan white sauce subsituting olive oil and soya milk for butter and dairy milk with some surprisingly good results.
Find the vegan bechamel sauce recipe here.
Gluten-free bechamel sauce
Going gluten-free? Removing flour from the basic recipe could be tricky - but there's one magic ingredient that makes it all ok - potato flour!
