Lasagne Soup

Winter is well and truly here which means that it's soup weather! I'm a big fan of cooking up a large pot of soup at the beginning of the week. It makes weeknight dinners so much easier and the soup lasts a couple of days which means all you need to do is heat it up and enjoy.

I bookmarked this Lasagne Soup recipe ages ago but only got around to making it recently. It tastes just like you're eating lasagne in soup form with the tomatoey soup flavour, a bit of Italian sausage as the meat, pasta, and of course some melty cheese to resemble the bechamel sauce. I went the non-traditional route and added a bit of Chinese cabbage and peas to include some vegetables. The best thing about soup though is that you can pretty much throw in whatever leftover vegies you have lurking in your fridge and it will still taste awesome.

I baked some bread to go with the soup (recipe here) but it's not really necessary since there's pasta in the soup already. This is probably one of the easiest soups I've made this winter with minimal prep and standing-over-the-stove time. Sir D also said it was his favourite out of all the soups I've made - win win!

Lasagne Soup
adapted from this recipe

2 tsp olive oil
550g Italian sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 x 400g can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
500ml chicken stock
250ml water
250g fusilli pasta
250g ricotta
100g Parmesan cheese, grated
Mozzarella cheese, grated, to serve
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage and brown for about 5 minutes.

2. Add onions and cook until softened. Then add garlic, oregano, and chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns dark.

3. Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, chicken stock and water. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. At this point you can add any extra leafy vegetables or peas and cook until softened.

4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta separately in salted water until al dente, and drain. Right before serving, season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

5. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheese mixture. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.

6. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl. Top with a spoonful of the cheese mixture, pasta and a sprinkle of mozzarella.