Lasagna soup
Broken lasagna noodles simmered in a sausage and tomato broth and topped with a cool, cheesy dollop of ricotta, all the flavor of lasagna with none of the layering.
- 50 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.91 a serving
- 600 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 can crushed tomatoes, 28 oz
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 8 lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, torn (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp salt
Each serving has about 600 calories, 30 g protein, 42 g carbs and 35 g fat, and costs about $2.91 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No crushed tomatoes? Diced tomatoes work.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No ricotta cheese? Cottage cheese works.
- No shredded mozzarella? Provolone slices work.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion, the garlic, and squeeze the sausage out of its casings if it has them.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Cook the sausage in a large pot over medium-high heat, breaking it into small , until with no pink left, 8 to 10 minutes.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 9 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes, until soft, then stir in the garlic, tomato paste and Italian seasoning for 1 minute.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Add the crushed tomatoes and broth and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Drop in the broken noodles and , stirring often so they don’t stick together, for 10 to 12 minutes, until tender.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 11 min
Dolly’s tip: Stir every couple of minutes, especially at the start. Lasagna noodles love to glue themselves together.Stir in the spinach until it , then taste for salt.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Low heat
While the soup finishes, stir the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and salt together in a bowl.
Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a big spoonful of the cheese mixture and a little basil.
Dolly’s tip: The pasta drinks up broth as it sits, so add a splash of broth to leftovers when you reheat them.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Instant Pot sausage pasta
40 min
Instant Pot cheesy kielbasa pasta
40 min
Pizza soup
40 min
Sausage and gnocchi soup
35 min
One-pan dinners ›Cozy comfort food ›What to make with pasta and parmesan ›What to make with parmesan and shredded mozzarella ›What to make with spinach and parmesan ›