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Short-Order Kitchen

Lasagna Soup

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A piece of cheesy baked lasagna sitting in rich tomato sauce in a black bowl, topped with a cherry tomato.
Recipe card
Servings
6
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
30 to 35 minutes
Method
Stovetop
Heat
Medium-high heat
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 1 of the thread Soups, chili and the slow cooker

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • One pot: brown the meat, soften the onion and garlic, then marinara and broth.
  • Break the noodles into bite-sized pieces and cook them right in the soup.
  • About 15 minutes of simmering for the pasta, stirring now and then.
  • The cheese goes on in the bowl, not in the pot.
THE RECIPE · LASAGNA SOUP

Ingredients

Soup

For the bowls

You'll need

  • Large pot or Dutch oven
  • Wooden spoon
  • Knife and cutting board

Directions

  1. Dice the onion, mince the garlic and break the noodles into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Brown the meat in a large pot over medium-high heat, breaking it up as it cooks. Drain off extra fat if there's much.
  3. Stir in the onion, garlic, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until the onion softens.
  4. Add the marinara and let it bubble 6 to 8 minutes. Pour in the broth and bring it back to a simmer.
  5. Stir in the noodles and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring often so they don't stick, until al dente.
  6. Ladle into bowls and top with mozzarella, Parmesan and a spoonful of ricotta if you like.
Notes Keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge, but the noodles keep drinking the broth, so add a splash of broth or water when you reheat. Protein pasta works in place of the lasagna noodles.

wesellis.com/blog/viral-lasagna-soup/

Lasagna is a weekend project. Lasagna soup is a Tuesday. All the same flavors are here, the meaty red sauce, the ruffled noodles, the cheese, just without the layering, the baking and the hour of waiting for it to set.

Let the sauce cook before the broth

It's tempting to dump the marinara and broth in together. Give the marinara six to eight minutes on its own first. It picks up the browned bits from the meat and tastes like a sauce instead of a thin tomato broth once the stock goes in.

Tip

Italian sausage instead of plain ground beef gives you fennel and seasoning for free. Lean turkey keeps it lighter.

Noodles and leftovers

Broken lasagna noodles cook right in the soup and thicken it a little as they go. That's great tonight. Tomorrow, they'll have soaked up a lot of the broth. Either add liquid when you reheat, or cook the noodles separately and add them to each bowl, the way the Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup does.

If you'd rather have the real layered thing, the Easy High Protein Lasagna is the casserole version. And Spaghetti & Turkey Meatballs scratches the same red-sauce itch with less spoon work.

Heads up

Keep the cheese out of the pot. Stirred in, it clumps and sinks. On top of a hot bowl, it melts into a lid.

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