This one pot lasagna soup recipe is pure comfort in a bowl. It is made with ground beef, Italian sausage, marinara or tomato pasta sauce, broth and lasagna noodles. It takes around 30 minutes to make and serves 4-6 people! It's a total crowd pleaser because who doesn't love lasagna?
About This Lasagna Soup
This lasagna soup is for winter and when you need a bit of a hug. It's for when you want lasagna but you don't want to spend time on making all the layers individually. This is about a speedy, delicious dinner in one pot so there's also minimal washing up too! Remember its cousin cheeseburger soup from many years ago?
Ingredients for Lasagna Soup
Olive oil - use extra virgin olive oil which is the only olive oil to use really.
Ground beef or turkey - use whichever meat you prefer.
Italian pork sausage or pork mince - Use pre-made Italian sausages (just remove the casings) or make your own Italian seasoned lean pork mince with my recipe below. I tend to always have lean pork mince in my freezer so this is something I make often.
White or brown onion - you can use any colour onion really.
Garlic - fresh, large garlic cloves
Marinara or tomato pasta sauce - you can use your favourite tomato pasta sauce or you can also use diced, tinned tomatoes.
Tomato paste - This intensifies the tomato flavour.
Ricotta or cottage cheese - If you want a slightly higher protein level go for cottage cheese, otherwise ricotta cheese also works. Or you can sub the ricotta with cream and blend with parmesan cheese.
Parmesan cheese - parmesan blended with the ricotta or cottage cheese makes a quick sub for bechamel sauce. Grana Padano is an economical alternative to parmesan.
Chicken or beef broth - I've tried both types of broth and they're both delicious. Beef gives it a slightly darker colour and richer flavour.
Curly lasagne or curly fettuccine - Go for instant lasagna sheets. I like using the curly edged lasagna sheets but these can be harder to find. You can also try curly fettuccine pasta too or just sub with any shape of short pasta.
Fennel seeds, smoked paprika - You can also use ground fennel seeds. These really add a great flavour to your soup, don't skip these!
Tips For Making Lasagna Soup
1 - You can use any mince you like from turkey to beef to pork.
2 - I don't always have Italian sausage so I like making my own Italian pork mince at home ever since making my own for the best lasagna recipe. I add spices to lean pork mince. The recipe for this is after the main lasagna soup recipe.
3- I like to add some fresh chilli to this just to make it a bit spicy.
4 - Sometimes I added a 100g/3.5oz bag of washed baby spinach to the sauce to get some extra veggies.
5 - You can easily double this recipe but you will need a very big pot to make a double quantity like a stock pot.
6 - Does lasagna soup reheat well? Yes. It keeps for 3-4 days in the fridge. I reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop. I sometimes add a bit more broth if it has thickened up as sometimes the pasta absorbs the liquid.
8 - Can I make lasagna soup with leftover lasagna? Yes, just add some broth or stock when reheating it in a pot!
9 - This recipe is best eaten on they day as the pasta can get quite soft if it is kept in the fridge. If you are making this for meal prepping you can stop cooking the pasta for 1-2 minutes less (unless soft pasta doesn't bother you - Mr NQN doesn't care but I don't like it at all!).
Lasagna Soup Recipe
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250g/8.8oz Italian pork sausage or pork mince (see seasoning below)
600g/21flozs marinara or tomato pasta sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste
4-5cups chicken or beef stock/broth (depending on how thick you want your soup)
125g/4ozs curly lasagne or curly fettuccine broken into thirds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons, chopped, fresh basil
150g/5ozs ricotta or cottage cheese
50g/1.7ozs parmesan cheese
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Add oil to a large cast iron pot set on medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft and fragrant but not too caramelised. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Then turn up to medium high heat and add the meat. Use a wooden spoon to make sure to break it up well into a fine mince and saute for around 6 minutes.
Step 2 - Add the sauce and the broth and bring to a simmer. Add in the pasta noodles (add each in separately so that they don't stick together), fennel seeds, smoked paprika, salt, sugar, pepper and basil and bring to a simmer again and cook on medium heat with the lid on stirring occasionally to ensure that the pasta is submerged and cooking through. While the pasta is cooking, blend the ricotta with the parmesan cheese.
Step 3 - After 15 minutes the pasta should be cooked. Ladle the soup into bowls and add a dollop of the ricotta parmesan cream on top of each bowl.
Italian Pork Mince
500g/1.1lbs pork mince
1.5 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Step 1 - Knead all ingredients together.
Personal Note
I remember my friend Queen Viv telling me all about how to make soup and how you need to add layers of flavour to soup and that was the key to a truly delicious soup. I stopped by her place the other day as she is a very handy seamstress and was helping me alter a skirt. She measured and pinned it for me and then we had a cup of tea in her living room with the winter sun streaming in through the enormous windows while her cat Voodoo scurried away, disturbed by the unwanted visitor.
It had been a while since we had caught up and she was telling me all about what she had been up to. She's about my mother's age and really she is closer to my personality than my mother who is very opposite to me. Queen Viv likes getting up to adventures and has a very rebellious side. She was telling me about how she visited the Southern Highlands of NSW where she brought a friend from New Zealand.
She wanted to show her friend a maze because she thought that it would be fun. When they arrived the woman at the maze told her that it was 3pm and that the maze was closed. I suppose they don't let people in close to 5pm in case they get lost and have to be found. But Queen Viv was not to be deterred. "Follow me," she told her friend and they snuck around to a side gate and entered the maze.
They had made a couple of turns before they realised that the woman was watching the maze from above. And she was very unhappy at these unwanted visitors. She then made her way down to the maze where she proceeded to chase and berate them.
"Was she yelling at you?" I asked laughing at the idea of Queen Viv and her friend trying to make their way through a maze away from the angry maze-keeper. "Yes!! But her voice told us where she was so we knew how to avoid her!" she nodded laughing. The woman never caught them and they managed to get away and sped off in the car. But it won't stop her from coming back another time, even if she is denied entry!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you like going for adventures? Would you have snuck into the maze?
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