A Mother Sauce
Béchamel sauce, aka white sauce, is made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk. Even though it first appeared in Italian cooking books (constituting one of the simplest sauces of the Italian cuisine), it is now considered one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. A mother sauce is one that is used as the base for other sauces, such as Mornay sauce (recipe on this link), which is a cheese sauce (essentially Béchamel with cheese).
There is a variety of things that you can use this sauce for, the most obvious are of course all the white sauce pasta dishes. However, this sauce can also be a base for sandwiches, think chicken and mushroom melt for instance, or on pizzas, think a vegetarian pizza with a Béchamel base instead of the same old tomato sauce (recipe on this link if you still insist) … With that said, and understanding the general requirement for vegan and gluten-free, I did not want those who are intolerant to miss out, so I have also included for you a video demonstrating a vegan, gluten free Béchamel sauce, and who better to show us how than Italian cooks? so check it out.
This recipe is a white sauce recipe with medium consistency used for creamed dishes and is also a base for other cream-based recipes.