If you love Italian food, you may enjoy this incredibly easy one pot lasagna soup recipe. It has quickly become a favorite at our house!
My mother-in-law is an excellent cook and she grew up cooking for her nine siblings, parents, and a large extended family. Early in our marriage, my husband would compare my cooking to his mother’s, which caused some friction. In hindsight, I think it’s natural for anyone to compare cooking with what they had as a child. But my husband just LOVED his mother’s lasagna and my efforts never measured up.
One time when we were visiting my in-laws, I asked my mother-in-law about her lasagna and she told me the secret: sausage. Pure beef lasagna comes out tasting rather bland, but if you mix half beef and half Italian sausage and you get a great depth of flavor. The beef adds fat and umami, while the sausage adds spice. The recipe we use is for a half beef and half sausage lasagna soup, a riff on what my husband loved growing up.
And if we’re going to be honest here, this lasagna soup recipe really isn’t all that soupy. It’s more of a stew or lasagna casserole or even a deconstructed lasagna. One of the best things about it is that it holds up really well to refrigeration and reheating, which is great because my husband loves to take his leftover lasagna soup to work for lunches. He says it tastes even better the next day!
There are a ton of slow cooker or crockpot lasagna soup recipes. While I like the idea of it, I couldn’t figure out how to do half beef and half sausage with the cooking times. Also, I wanted something that would be quick, which is why I like this one pot easy lasagna soup recipe.
This recipe for lasagna soup has two amazing selling points (after the whole sausage thing). First, I use fusilli pasta because it soaks up some of the tomato and broth in the ridges of the noodle. Second, lasagna soup with ricotta cheese makes everything better. The massive amount of delicious ricotta makes the broth really creamy. So, while it tastes like lasagna soup, the concoction kind of sets up a bit into something firmer.
All in all, this is a delicious, easy meal any time of year, but especially in the fall and winter.
Lasagna Soup
This one-pot lasagna soup recipe combines ground beef and Italian sausage for delicious flavor. This easy recipe makes a large pot, and the lasagna soup is great for reheating the next day.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 28 oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 8 oz fusilli
- salt and pepper
- 8 oz. ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown sausage and ground beef, breaking up with the back of a spoon for 5 minutes.
- Add onion to pot and cook another five minutes.
- Add garlic, oregano, basil, and crushed red pepper and cook for 1 minute.
- Add tomato paste to meat mixture and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add tomatoes, bay leaf, and broth. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat. Decrease and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
- Add pasta to mixture and cook for 15 minutes or until al dente.
- Add cheeses to mixture and stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 535Total Fat: 31gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 1830mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 4gSugar: 8gProtein: 37g