Angela's Italian Recipe for Mushroom Bechamel

Mushroom Bechamel
(Besciamella Ai Funghi)


Ingredients:

For the Bechamel Sauce:
2 oz (50 grams) oz butter
2 oz (50 grams) plain flour
18 fl oz (500 ml) milk
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Salt and pepper

For the Rest of the Sauce:
1 oz (25 grams) butter
5 oz (150 grams) fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly
3 tablespoons double cream
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Prepare the Bechamel Sauce:
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.

Whisk in the flour.

Pour in all the milk, whisking constantly until the sauce starts to boil.

Season with salt, lower the heat, cover and simmer gently, stirring every now and then, for at about 20 minutes.

Remove the sauce pan from the heat.

Taste and add more salt if necessary and season with pepper and or nutmeg.

If the sauce is too thick, add just a bit more milk.

If the sauce is too runny, return it to the heat and add a small quantity of butter mixed in with an equal quantity of flour.

Prepare the Rest of the Sauce:
Melt the butter in a sauce pan.

Add the mushrooms, cover and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the mushrooms release all their natural liquid.

Remove the lid, increase the heat and boil off the rest of the liquid.

Season with salt.

Heat the bechamel sauce and stir in the mushrooms.

Season with pepper to taste and gently add in the cream.

For short pasta and veal scallops. Serves 4.

Note: For a thicker bechamel sauce, replace half the milk with the same amount of double cream; for a thinner bechamel sauce, add half milk and half water.

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