White sauce – goes great with pasta!

This sauce recipe is for a white sauce, which is often used in pasta dishes. If looking for a white sauce recipe, this will be ideal.

Ingredients – as required | Cooking time 30 mins

50g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk
1 small onion
6-8 cloves
Sea salt / pepper

Method

Peel the onion. Push the clove points into the onion. This is now studded onion with cloves, in cookery terms it’s called a ‘clouté’.
Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the clouté. Stand for 15 minutes to allow the flavour to infuse into the milk.
Heat the milk to just below boiling point. At the same time, melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan (non-stick) over a medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux. Gently cook for 1 to 2 minutes to allow the flour to cook. Keep stirring. To avoid any colour, use a wooden spoon.
Slowly add the hot milk a little at a time to avoid any lumps until all the milk has been incorporated. Turn down the heat to very low and simmer the white sauce for about 10 minutes. Keep stirring from time to time.
Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Do not use black pepper on this occasion as it will show as little black spots in the finished white sauce.
Pass the white sauce through a fine strainer and use as required.

To keep the white sauce hot until it is required, make up a bain marie (hot water bath) to store the sauce in. Keep the white sauce covered and stir occasionally to stop a skin forming on top.