Whenever we do interviews for magazines and newspapers and things like that, we somehow always end up talking about what draws us to food and cooking. And for me, although the creative aspect is largely appealing, when it comes down to the heart of it, it’s all about the emotional connection. I love how food can bring people together, and soothe hearts, and show those you care about that you love them. When I was a child, so much of “life” happened in the kitchen and around our table and I still turn to food as a way to show people I care about them. I think for that reason I’m always especially grateful when people do the same for me. My life has been a little upside-down recently as my family packed up our house to move into a new place and we’ve have had a couple months of chaotic living. Over the past few weeks several of my friends have brought meals over to my family and I can’t even express how much that meant to us after weeks of eating fast food and frozen meals in a half-packed-up kitchen. The other night one of my best friends, Melanie, and her husband Todd dropped by with a hot pot of this delicious soup. It was a cold, drizzly day and I had spent hours unpacking boxes and I almost cried when I saw an amazing home-cooked meal showing up at my doorstep. Mel had told me about this soup before, with its cheesy surprise at the bottom of the bowl and it was just as yummy as she had described. After we finished up the soup, and had it for leftovers the next day, we still had a bunch of the cheesy mixture leftover and I couldn’t stand to not use it because it was the best part! So I tracked down the soup recipe and realized that I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen right then and it was as easy as dumping most of them into a pot, so I made a little more (and snapped a few pics) so we could finish up that bowl of cheesy goodness. And since this is all I’ve cooked in a while, this is what we’re making today!
Ingredient Notes
- Italian Sausage – I almost always use Turkey Italian Sausage for any recipe that calls for Italian sausage. Foster Farms (no sponsorship here, I just love it) makes both a “hot and spicy” and a “sweet.” Sweet just means it’s not spicy- either one works in most recipes. I pretty much always have this in my freezer.
- Tomato Paste – Quick tip: It’s kind of annoying when recipes use only 1-2 tablespoons of something like tomato paste. If you’re like me, you put the rest in a container and freeze it and then end up throwing it out next time you clean out your freezer. Or the next time you need it, you need another tablespoon and now you have a big frozen block you have to chip away at. What I usually do is spoon it out into 1 tablespoon measurements, either on a piece of waxed paper like you see in the photo, or into an ice cube tray that’s been lined with plastic wrap. Once they’re frozen, place them in a zip top bag in your freezer and next time you need some, you can just grab the amount you need, all measured out and ready to go.
Instructions
- You’ll brown up the sausage and then add (in no particular order. Okay, well, there’s order in the recipe instructions, just not in my random assortment of photos here) some onion and garlic, some dried herbs, a couple of bay leaves, some diced tomatoes and chicken broth, and some tomato paste.
- While the soup in simmering away, you can whip up the cheese mixture: ricotta, shredded Parmesan cheese and seasoned with salt and pepper.
- This soup includes noodles too, and you can put them in the soup towards the end of simmering to cook them, or do as I did and cook them separately. Noodles in soup are sometimes tricky, and end up sucking up way too much of the broth, and getting soggy in leftovers, etc. So I like to sometimes just cook them separately and add them to the individual servings.
- To assemble the soup for serving, spoon a generous dollop of the cheese mixture into the bottom of the bowl and add some pasta if you cooked it separately.
- Then ladle the hot soup over the top. This is where it works its magic. Just let it sit for a minute or two and by the time you’re ready to eat, it’s like a treasure chest of ooey gooey melted cheese down there. Do yourself a favor and serve this with a loaf of crusty rustic bread you can dip and spread the cheesy love with. And then make a pot for a friend!
Serving Suggestions
Serve with a side salad and your choice of bread. This Easy No Knead Overnight Artisan Bread would be great, as would these Artisan Baguettes. You can’t really go wrong with Easy Homemade Breadsticks or Quick & Easy Garlic-Parmesan Rolls, either!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make this ahead of time? If you need to plan ahead, cook the soup through simmering, cool, and refrigerate until ready to reheat. While reheating, prepare your cheese mixture and noodles, then assemble your bowls.
Did You Make This?
I’d love to hear from you! Snap a picture and tag me on Instagram, then come back and give this recipe a rating!
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Lasagna Soup
- Total Time: 45 minutes
Description
Gooey, delicious, and perfect for a wintry day, this Lasagna Soup never disappoints. Just be sure to make enough to share!
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 lbs Italian Sausage (I use Italian Turkey Sausage)
- 3 cups chopped onions
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- optional: 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire roasted
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 8 ounces fusilli or mafalda pasta (or other pasta of your choice)
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil, or a heaping tablespoon dried basil
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 8 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- a few cracks of black pepper
- optional: shredded mozzarella for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into bite sized pieces and cook until browned and cooked through. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. If you’re using dried basil, add it at this point. Cook for about a minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate.
- Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. You can add the dry pasta to the soup in the last 8-ish minutes of cooking, or do as I prefer, and cook the pasta separately and add to individual servings. Right before serving, stir in fresh basil if you’re using fresh, and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.
- To serve, place a generous dollop of the ricotta mixture in each soup bowl, add pasta if you cooked it separately, and ladle the hot soup over the cheese. Let it sit for a minute for the cheese to get all melty, sprinkle mozzarella on top if desired and eat up.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
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Questions & Reviews
Do you think substituting shredded mozzarella instead of Parmesan would work alright with the ricotta?
This ia a great recipe! I made a couple of batches (minus the noodles and cheese) and froze it. Then I pulled it out when we had tons of family staying with us over Christmas. It was a huge hit! Everyone loved it regardless of age, and it was so easy to just mix up the cheese and cook the noodles at the last minute. yum!
Yummo !!!! Can’t wait to try this, me and my DS are both
Big soup fans. Perfect for our chilly weather 🙂
Looks really good. I have a question on the bay leaves: do you put them in whole and then remove them prior to serving? That’s the only way I’ve ever used them, so I’m not sure of another way. Thanks.
Wow, looks so good! Almost mouthwatering! Can’t wait tI’ll I try it!
Made this for dinner tonight. It was so awesome. I thought it would be good, but I didn’t realize it’d be THAT good. As my husband just said, it was in the top 10. Thanks!!! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. 🙂
I made this for dinner on Sunday and it was great! I took the sausage out of the skins and broke it up as I browned it. We loved it! We left off the mozzarella on the top and we did add the pasta in as we served it. Thanks for a good one! My husband loves it whenever I say the recipe is OBB…he knows it will be good!
I didn’t have shredded parmesan, so I used parmesan from a can and it was still delicious! Everyone (hubby and 4 kids) loved this soup! I wanted to save on dirty pans so I cooked the pasta in the soup. There were no leftovers 🙁 I will definately make it again!
This was a huge hit in my household. It was so rich and hearty, and even with less cheese than traditional lasagna, it was melty and cheesy! I added mushrooms to the recipe, and I think next time I’ll also add some frozen spinach. Thanks Best Bites!
I made this a few days ago and loved it. I like trying recipes that aren’t too complicated, pretty fail-safe and so good. Thank you! Merry Christmas.
Just made this for dinner. It was awesome! Definitely going into my permanent repetoire. Thank you so much, my family inhaled it.
I just made this yummy soup on Momday from a pinned recipe. It’s fabulous!!
This soup was delicious, but my cheese didn’t get all melty like yours did. It just kind of dissolved into the broth. I’m trying to figure out if it’s because I used parm out of a can or fat free ricotta. When I mixed them together they didn’t really look like yours in the picture — it was a lot wetter. Any ideas? It was still delicious and I’ve had leftovers for lunch twice, but I’m pretty sure I need that gooey, melty cheese deliciousness that I see in the pictures!
Ellie, those are definitely the culprits! Specifically the Parm from a can- if you want it to melt, you really need to use shredded (preferably freshly shredded) cheese. I’d probably stick to low-fat or full-fat ricotta as well. Do those things and you’ll be in gooey cheesy heaven!
I saw this on Pinterest and I had to make it for supper tonight!! It was DELICIOUS!! I added some celery that I needed to use and a cup of frozen corn just to get some extra veggies!! Then I used a small can of tomatoe sauce instead of tomatoe paste because that’s all I had!! I also just used ground hamburger and just broke up some lasagna noodles for the pasta and I didn’t have ricotta so I added some small curd cottage cheese instead!! My boys (husband, 6yr.old and 2 yr. old)LOVED it and said this recipe was a keeper!! =) THANKS for sharing and have a FABULOUS WEEK!! =)
What would be the best way to store leftovers? keep the cheese and noodles seperate or just the cheese? I’m making this tonight!
Okay I have to admit the when I first saw the recipe title “Lasagna Soup” that it just sounded wrong to me, just like blue m&ms are wrong but I digress. After reading the list ingredients I decided to try it for dinner last night. I made a 1/2 batch and it was really good. My husband declared it was a “keeper” recipe. Thanks Sara!
This was even great meatless. Thanks for such delicious ideas!
I did switch the chicken broth for beef broth… I love meat, just lazy and didn’t want to defrost any from the freezer. ~Cheers
Wow, this is comfort food at it’s finest. Yum! After one bite, the husband said “Wow, this one is a keeper.” I agree. Next time, I’ll serve it with a side of garlic bread. Thank you for another fantastic recipe.
Delicious!!!! Will make again with fresh garlic bread on the side! Thx for the recipe 🙂
Erin
Made this tonight for myself, with intention of serving it to guests tomorrow. I secretly hope they don’t want it bc I want to eat the whole batch myself!! Delicious!!!
Love love your recipes every recipe I learn something from you both,,
Made this last night and it was fantastic! Everyone LOVED it! I added a can of mushrooms too.
MMMMMMM! All the goodness of lasagna, but in a spoonable format, and no mucking around with layers, fantastico.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was great. I wasn’t sure when I saw the name – lasagna soup. But, it was really good and tasted a lot like lasagna. Thanks for a new soup recipe we will enjoy many more times.
Must try!
Love your website – love your recipes. Your variety and humerous comments truly make Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays my favorite days of the week. I just have one tiny request that you may have answered before so I apologize if this is redundant. I have noticed that sometimes you put the nutritional value (carbs, sugars, etc.) of the food with the recipe and sometimes it’s not included. My son was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes so this information has become very important to me as I try to cook healthy, TASTY meals for him. With my love of all things OBB, I make so many of your recipes. Would it be possible to have that information included with ALL of the recipes? I realize there are many recipes already on your site without the information, but even if it were included in the future, it would be greatly appreciated! I know I’m not the only one who would love to fix and serve your wonderful recipes to the people I love and have them be able to enjoy it and know it is fitting within their dietary requirements. Thank you so much!
This looks amazing! I am so bummed though because I am missing a few ingredients and I literally just walked in from the grocery store (as in my groceries are still sitting on my table, waiting patiently for me to put them away). Must go back to the store!
This looks sooooo yummy. Do you happen to have any suggestions on what vegetables might go well in there. I am trying hard to be good.
I put spinach and mushrooms in my regular lasagna, might be good here, too?
I added some zucchini and yellow squash. it was super tasty. I don’t usually add on to my OBB recipes, but I felt that Sara and Kate would approve 🙂
haha, I approve!
I think I just found dinner tonight! Even though it’s not cold or rainy here in Southeast Texas. Still waiting for that part actually. Excellent sounding recipe! Yum, yum!
I am literally drooling! My husband loves lasagna but I feel like it’s such a pain sometimes to make it (plus I dread all the carbs!). But this is going on the menu (and I can monitor how many carbs I put in my personal bowl. I love it, perfect for everyone 🙂