Description
Lasagna soup gives you all the flavor of lasagna, in soup form. It is easier to make – 45 minutes, 1 pot, and no layering. It’s loaded with lasagna noodles, beef, marinara sauce, and it is topped with ricotta cheese, and mozzarella cheese for that cheesy lasagna vibe.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Lasagna soup base
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil (or olive oil, or grapeseed oil)
- 2 zucchinis, thinly sliced
- 1 pound lean ground beef (could sub pork sausage)
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- optional: 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- optional: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (for flavoring the beef)
- 1 medium yellow, or white onion, chopped
- 4 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/3 cup dry red wine (such as pinot noir, or merlot) – can easily swap with extra beef broth, if needed
- 24 ounces Marinara sauce (use a simply flavored one, like roasted garlic or basil)
- 1 15 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
- 4 cups beef broth, or chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (for flavoring the broth)
- optional: 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar (only if needed to balance out acidity a little)
Noodles
- 5 ounces lasagna noodles, broken up into 1 to 2 inch pieces
Ricotta Topping
- 2 cups (16 ounces) whole milk ricotta cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Remaining toppings
- 2 to 3 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Fresh basil leaves (Highly recommend the basil leaves, if you can)
- optional: Fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Prepare the veggies – slice the zucchini, chop the onion, mince the garlic, and slice the mushroom. Place the zucchini in a separate bowl – you can place the mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the same bowl if you want..
- Sauté the zucchini – heat a Dutch oven, a of stew pot over medium high heat. Once the pan is heated add the oil, then add the zucchini so that the bottom of the pot isn’t overcrowded. Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, or just until it’s tender, remove and repeat with the remaining zucchini.
- Cook the ground beef and veggies – to the still hot Dutch oven add the ground beef, add the basil, rosemary, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, and salt – break up the beef in fine crumbles. Once the beef is mostly browned add the onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent and soft, and the mushrooms have cooked down – about 5 minutes. Note: if at this point it looks like there is a lot of grease in the pan you will want to drain the beef and veggies from the grease.
- Add the tomato paste – Add the tomato paste and stir and allow it to cook for 1 minute, or until the tomato paste looks darker in color.
- Deglaze with the wine – Add the wine and deglaze the pan, use a wooden spoon to scrape off the stuck on bits. Allow the wine to simmer and cook off for 1 minute. NOTE: if you don’t want to use wine, simple swap the wine for extra beef broth. You can skip the simmering step.
- Add remaining liquid ingredients – Add the jar of marinara sauce, can of fire roasted tomatoes, and the beef broth. Also add the 2 teaspoons of kosher salt – stir to combine.
- Simmer – Pop the lid on and turn the heat to high, bring to a boil – reduce to a simmer. Simmer with the lid askew for 10 minutes.
- Break up the noodles – During this time you can break up the lasagna noodles, if you haven’t done so already. I just use my hands to break them up into varying sizes.
- De-grease the soup (optional step) – At this point the soup might look a little oily on the top. I think this is due to the oil that’s separated in the marinara sauce while it was simmering. If you have this issue, spoon the top layer of liquid out into a fat separator – pour the grease into a container to be thrown out, then pour back any remaining broth liquid that doesn’t have grease in it. I didn’t do this step the first time I made this soup and I think the oil just cooked into the noodles – sounds kind of gross, but we weren’t really aware of it being greasy while we were eating it. I did feel better about knowing that I removed any excess, unnecessary fat from the soup the time I used the fat separator – it’s up to you.
- Add the noodles – Add the broken lasagna noodles into the boiling soup pot, drop them in one at a time, stirring after every few pieces have been dropped in – this prevents sticking.
- Boil – Boil the soup, with the lid off, stirring the soup occasionally. Boil for 10 to 13 minutes, or until the lasagna noodles feel al dente. Remove the soup from the heat. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. NOTE: if for some reason the soup tastes pretty acidic, than you can add the 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar to balance it out. It won’t taste sweet, it will just help to balance out the acidity.
- Make the ricotta topping – you can do this while the soup is boiling. Add the ricotta cheese to a small mixing bowl, along with the garlic powder, kosher salt, and black pepper – stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
- To serve – Ladle the soup into serving bowls. Top each bowl with a few dollops of the ricotta cheese, some shredded mozzarella cheese, and some fresh basil leaves, and chopped parsley. I like to place the cheeses in separate bowls, and the herb in separate bowls so that individuals can add the toppings as they like to their soups. Enjoy immediately.
- To store leftovers – Store the cheeses in separate containers than the soup. Re-heat the soup gently. Leftovers will last in the fridge for up to a week. The soup might get a little thick as it sits and the noodles soak up more liquid – if needed, you can stir in a little extra broth to thin it out a bit.
Notes
Red wine – If you don’t drink red wine you can easily omit it, and replace it with extra beef broth.
gluten free option – you can easily use gluten free lasagna noodles in this recipe. I tested the recipe using Barilla No Boil Gluten free lasagna noodles – worked great.
