My new secret weapon

I've just recently (ie, this week) discovered the magic that is bechamel sauce. It's a pretty handy replacement for cheese when you're baking something. So, I wanted to make baked ziti but I didn't want allll that cheese, so I just used a couple ounces of Gruyere and a little Parmesan instead of a whole bag of mozzarella. And then on top I put a batch of bechamel and baked it until it was a little brown. It was still very creamy and good. I also made a swiss chard gratin this way with no cheese at all.

There seem to be a lot of variations. I just make the one that was in my Spoon cookbook. It calls for melting 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan (I replace 1/2 or 3/4 of that butter with olive oil, depending on how thick I need the final sauce to be) and whisking in an equal amount of flour until it's smooth. Then you whisk in 2 and 1/4 cups of milk, bring to a boil while stirring, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes until it doesn't taste floury. Add salt, pepper, and/or nutmeg.