Pizza Today - October 2018 - 35

I

f you want to give a decadently creamy
taste and texture to your pizza menu
this fall and winter, there is no better
place to start than with a scratch-made
béchamel sauce. While red pies are the
undisputed fan favorite, white pizzas
continue to surge in popularity as consumers become ever more adventurous and
demand variety. Everyone is looking for a
flavor bomb, and a well done béchamel will
certainly provide that!
WHITE SAUCES ORIGINATED IN THE
EMILIA-ROMAGNA REGION OF ITALY.

Béchamel is amongst the first white sauces,
making it a classic staple that is not foreign
to your customer base. Start your béchamel
with a roux - a butter and flour blend that,
when cooked together, forms a base for
many different sauces. From there, make
your béchamel using onions, milk and salt.
When it comes down to it, it is a deceptively simple sauce!
We have this easy recipe stored in the
Pizza Today archives. It was given to us
many years ago by the late, great Pat Bruno.
Pat was not only a friend, but a monthly

contributor to this magazine as well as to
International Pizza Expo. You may remember seeing him emcee the International
Pizza Challenge. His wit, charm and sense
of humor were only matched by his cooking
chops!

Scratch-Made Béchamel Sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
½ teaspoon salt
In a heavy saucepan set over mediumhigh heat, cook the onion with the butter
just until the onions are softened. Stir in
the flour. Cook and stir the roux for about
three minutes.
Add the milk in a steady stream, whisking steadily until the sauce smooths out.
Add the salt. Simmer the sauce for
about 10 minutes, or until it is thickened to
the consistency you desire.
This sauce can be kept for several days
under refrigeration. Cover the surface with
a buttered round of parchment paper to
prevent a skim from forming.

ONCE YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED THIS
VERSATILE BASE, IT IS TIME TO GET STARTED ON YOUR PIZZA CREATIONS. Béchamel

is not a bland sauce, so do not do yourself
the injustice of treating it as such. Let your
creativity know no bounds! We experiment
a lot in our test kitchen. Not everything
turns out perfectly, and that is okay. You
obviously are not going to feed your
customers anything less than a winner. So
take your time playing around with different
topping combinations until you hit on one
you know your customer base will appreciate.
While we will get to a pizza recipe in a
moment, bear in mind that béchamel, as
previously mentioned, is a versatile sauce. It
pairs exceptionally well with chicken, bacon,
seafood and fresh vegetables. Grilled shrimp
and broccoli, for example, are naturals when
it comes to teaming up with béchamel.
Here is the recipe for the pizza you see in
the photo on page 34.

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 3 5
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Pizza Today - October 2018

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