Like any sane person in the world, I'm a big fan of lasagna. I've been following a very tasty recipe the last couple of times I've made the dish, and it has a very prominent tasting bolognese sauce, using fennel seeds and all. The recipe itself asks to add a layer of ricotta to balance out the strength of the meat sauce and it is quite delicious.

Recently though, I've been reading recipes that add bechamel to lasagna. I've actually eaten lasagna with bechamel (it said so on the menu) but couldn't actually distinguish the taste as bechamel. So what is the purpose of the bechamel? Is it supposed to replace the ricotta layer? Have you ever made a lasagna with bechamel? If so, do you recommend it over one without?