A hearty, easy Lasagna Soup recipe — it’s like eating your favorite Italian comfort food, only in a bowl! This soup has a meaty tomato base and is topped off with a creamy ricotta-cheese filling. Ready in only 30 minutes!
Something cozy and hearty for you today.
This lasagna soup is serious comfort food. Warm-you-to-your-toes comfort food, right up there with my baked ziti and stuffed shells. Rich and hearty, meaty, super cheesy, it’s every bit as satisfying as classic lasagna, only made simpler because everything is just tossed in a pot together and ready in 30 minutes.
Sweet recipes are my specialty, but every now and then I make something savory that’s just so good I can’t keep it to myself, and I perfected this recipe shortly after Luke was born (I was too tired to put the effort into making a real lasagna!). Let me know in the comments if you try this lasagna soup and how you like it!
How to Make Lasagna Soup
The recipe is detailed in its entirety below, but here are the highlights:
- Heat your oil, cook your onions, then your garlic, then brown your meat.
- Add all remaining soup ingredients, tomato sauces, broth, spices, etc.
- Bring to a boil, then add your pasta noodles and cook until these are tender.
- Make your topping and serve!
This ricotta-based topping is what gives the lasagna soup its cheesiness, since there’s none in the actual base of the soup recipe. You’ll mix up mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, parsley, and just a bit of cream cheese. The cream cheese is optional, but I love the flavor it adds.
Dollop the topping on top of your soup, then stir it in for a creamy, cheesy meal.
I also have a step-by-step video below the recipe detailing exactly how to make this recipe.
What to Serve with Lasagna Soup:
Basically, any kind of bread 😉. Bruschetta or a Caprese Salad also makes a great side dish!
Can I Make This in the Crockpot?
You can, but a lot of the heavy lifting needs to be done outside of the crockpot in order to get the best flavor. I would recommend cooking your onions, meat, and garlic on the stovetop as indicated. Then transfer these to the slow cooker along with all of the remaining ingredients except the pasta and spinach (and, of course, without the topping). Cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours. 30 minutes before you are ready to serve, add the pasta and spinach and cover, cook until the pasta is tender and then serve.
Tips
- You can use one full pound of sausage or one full pound of ground beef instead of a combination of the two (though the way it this lasagna soup recipe is written yields the best flavor in my opinion). This recipe could also be made with ground chicken or ground turkey instead of beef.
- If you are going to make lasagna soup in advance, you may need to add a bit more broth when you serve it to make it appropriately soupy again. As the soup sits and simmers, the pasta noodles will absorb much of the liquid.
- If your grocery store doesn’t carry Mafalda noodles you can substitute any similarly-sized noodle (small bowties, spiral rotini, etc.) or you can simply break up lasagna noodles and use those.
- If you grate your own mozzarella cheese it will melt more nicely into the soup when you serve it, while pre-shredded tends to retain its shape. Full disclosure: I’m usually to lazy to shred my own and no one has ever complained.
Enjoy!
More Recipes to Try!
- Potato Soup (over 300 5-star ratings!)
- The Best Chili (it’s won over a dozen cook-offs!)
- Corn Chowder
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
Let’s cook together! Head on over to my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 200 recipe videos that you can watch for free!
Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium-sized yellow onion diced (about 1 cup)
- 3 cloves garlic minced (1 heaping Tablespoon)
- ½ lb sweet Italian sausage¹ 0.25kg
- ½ lb 90% lean ground beef¹ 0.25kg
- 5 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
- 14.5 oz crushed tomatoes 411g
- 8 oz tomato sauce 226g
- 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon salt plus additional to taste as needed
- ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper plus additional to taste as needed
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper optional
- 2 ½ cups/5 oz dry Mafalda noodles² 140g
- 2 cups chopped fresh spinach 35g
Cheese Topping
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 113g
- 8 oz whole milk ricotta cheese 226g
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan (or parmesan romano) cheese 40g
- 2 oz cream cheese softened, optional (55g)
- 1 Tablespoon finely chopped parsley plus additional for garnish, if desired
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and cook until softened and translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Add Italian sausage and beef, crumbling while you cook, and cook until browned (I do not drain any grease).
- Add chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, Italian seasoning, basil, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, if using. Stir well.
- Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, and add pasta. Cook for 10 minutes or until noodles are tender.
- Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to simmer for 15 minutes (this is a good time to prepare your cheese topping).
- Add spinach and cook until wilted. Serve soup, topped with a dollop of cheese mixture.
Cheese Topping:
- Stir together mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, and cream cheese along with parsley. Dollop over soup before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Mindy
Can’t wait to try it. I’ll use cottage cheese I am not a ricotta fan. But it looks delicious.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope you love it, Mindy!
Jacki S
I made this last night and it was awesome! I am wondering if the sugar is necessary though?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed it, Jacki! The sugar helps to smooth the acidity from the tomatoes. We don’t recommend skipping it 😊
Shawnee
This was a great recipe! I did not add tomato paste because I didn’t have it. Didn’t make a difference though. And I didn’t have ricotta, so I used whole milk cottage cheese instead and it turned out divine! Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy it turned out for you, Shawnee! Enjoy 😊