Easy Lasagna Soup Recipe
This lasagna soup recipe gives you the saucy meat, the tomato-rich broth, and the ricotta-mozzarella layer of a real lasagna in one pot, in about 50 minutes. The noodles go in broken, straight into the broth, so there is no boiling pasta separately and no baking dish to scrub. What actually makes it taste like lasagna is the ricotta topping, and most versions online get that part wrong.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- One pot, one spoon, about 50 minutes start to finish.
- Uses pantry staples: canned tomatoes, broth, dried herbs, lasagna noodles.
- Feeds six generously and stretches further with bread on the side.
- Freezes well if you keep the noodles out (details below in the storage section).
Season the ricotta and take it out of the fridge before cooking. Stir whole-milk ricotta with grated parmesan, salt, black pepper, and torn basil, then let it sit while the soup simmers.
Add it to individual bowls rather than stirring it into the pot.
Read Before You Start
Use low-sodium broth. The soup reduces while it simmers, and the sausage, parmesan, and canned tomatoes all bring salt with them. Regular broth pushes it over the line by the time the noodles are done, and there is no way to pull salt back out.
Decide about leftovers before you cook. Noodles left sitting in broth keep drinking it. If you know you'll be eating this over two or three days, boil the noodles in a separate pot of salted water and add them to each bowl instead of to the pot. The soup itself keeps beautifully; the noodles are what turn to mush.
Ingredient Deep Dive & Notes
Italian-style beef or chicken sausage. Most lasagna soup recipes call for pork sausage. Beef or chicken Italian sausage works just as well here, and it keeps the whole thing halal. If your sausage is mild rather than seasoned Italian, add half a teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds with the dried herbs. Fennel is the flavor your brain reads as "Italian sausage," and without it beef sausage tastes flat in a tomato broth.
Whole-milk ricotta, and don't substitute part-skim. Part-skim ricotta has more water and less fat, so it goes grainy and weepy the moment it hits hot soup. Cottage cheese works if you blend it smooth first, but whole-milk ricotta is the one that behaves.
Crushed tomatoes, not diced. Crushed tomatoes give the broth body so it clings to the noodles. Diced tomatoes stay as separate cubes floating in thin liquid, which is exactly the texture you're trying to avoid in this lasagna soup recipe.
Tomato paste. Three tablespoons sounds like a lot for a soup. It isn't. This is where the deep, cooked-down-sauce flavor comes from in 35 minutes instead of three hours.
Regular lasagna noodles, broken by hand. Not no-boil sheets. No-boil noodles are designed to soften in a covered baking dish with limited liquid, and in an open pot of broth they blow out and fall apart. Break regular noodles into rough two-inch pieces so you get those ruffled edges in every spoonful.
Low-moisture mozzarella. Shred it yourself from a block if you can. Pre-shredded is coated in starch to stop clumping, and that starch leaves a slightly chalky film when it melts into broth. Melting freshly shredded cheese off the heat is the same secret we use in our Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese.
Equipment Needed
- A 6-quart or larger Dutch oven or heavy pot. Smaller pots crowd the meat so it steams instead of browning, and the noodles need room to move.
- A wooden spoon or spatula sturdy enough to scrape the browned bits off the bottom.
Lasagna soup ingredients including sausage, crushed tomatoes, lasagna noodles, ricotta and basil
Detailed Step-by-Step Cooking Guide
Preparation & Setup
1. Brown the meat properly
Ground meat and onions browning in a pot
2. Soften the onion
3. Bloom the tomato paste and herbs
4. Add the liquids and simmer
5. Cook the noodles in the soup
Broken lasagna noodles simmering in tomato broth
6. Finish with spinach and cream
7. Mix the ricotta topping
Getting the Texture Right
Straight out of the pot, this should pour like a thick soup, not a stew. The broth clings to the back of a spoon and the noodles are suspended in it rather than packed together. If you drag a spoon through and the trail stays open for a second, you're there.
Too thick, usually within 10 minutes of sitting? The noodles have absorbed broth, which is normal and continues as it cools. Add hot broth a half cup at a time, stir, and re-taste for salt, because dilution flattens the seasoning.
Too thin? Simmer uncovered another 5 minutes, or mash a few noodle pieces against the side of the pot to release starch.
Almost always caused by using cold or part-skim ricotta, or stirring it into the boiling pot. Use whole-milk ricotta at room temperature, and dollop it into individual serving bowls at the table rather than into the pot. Sustained direct heat breaks the emulsion and turns the broth cloudy.
Close-up spoonful of lasagna soup with noodles and ricotta
Slow Cooker, Instant Pot & Other Uses
How to Serve, Store & Reheat
Serve immediately in wide shallow bowls, with the ricotta added at the table so it stays distinct instead of dissolving. Garlic bread or a torn baguette is the obvious side; a sharp green salad with lemon vinaigrette cuts through the richness better. If you are craving classic baked pasta with distinct strata rather than soup, make our Easy Lasagna Recipe with No-Boil Noodles or guilt-free Zucchini Lasagna.
Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. If the noodles cooked in the pot, expect it to thicken into something closer to a casserole overnight; that's normal and fixable with broth. Store the ricotta topping separately.
Reheat gently on the stovetop over medium-low with a splash of broth or water, stirring until it loosens and reaches a steady simmer. Microwave works in 90-second bursts with a stir between each. Add fresh ricotta and mozzarella after reheating, never before.
Yes, but only the noodle-free base. Cook the soup through the simmer step, cool completely, and freeze for up to 3 months. When thawing, boil fresh pasta separately. For more freezer-friendly winter meals, explore our 15 Vegetable Soup Recipes collection.
Two bowls of lasagna soup with garlic bread and salad
Dietary Variations & Adaptations
Swap in gluten-free lasagna sheets or broken gluten-free fettuccine. Cook them separately in salted water and add to each bowl, because gluten-free pasta releases far more starch and will turn the broth gluey if cooked in the pot.
Replace the meat with 8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms and one 15-oz can of drained lentils. Brown the mushrooms hard in the oil until they squeak and release their liquid before adding the onion, otherwise the soup tastes watery. Use vegetable broth and keep the fennel seeds; they do a lot of the heavy lifting here.
Skip the ricotta and mozzarella. Blend 1 cup soaked raw cashews with 1/4 cup water, lemon juice, salt, and a little nutritional yeast for a topping that behaves similarly. Use olive oil instead of cream.
A note from the kitchen: Salt this soup at the very end, not at the start. Between the broth reducing, the sausage rendering, the parmesan rind if you used one, and the salted ricotta going on top, the finished bowl carries salt from four separate places.
What tastes correct in the pot at minute five will taste aggressive at minute thirty-five. Season lightly along the way, then taste and correct once the noodles are done and the heat is off.
That final adjustment is the only one that reflects what the person eating it will actually taste.
Allergen Notice: This recipe contains dairy (ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, optional cream), wheat/gluten (lasagna noodles), and possibly soy depending on your sausage and broth brand. Dairy can be swapped for the cashew topping above, gluten for certified gluten-free noodles, and soy avoided by checking sausage and broth labels. Always read the labels on your specific products. This is not a claim that the recipe is safe for any particular allergy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Recipe Visual Gallery (6 Full Photos)
Recipe Card & Steps
Ingredients Checklist
Click an item to check it off as you prep
- 1 tbspolive oil
- 1 lbItalian-style beef or chicken sausage, casings removed
- 1/2 lbground beef (85/15)
- 1medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 3 tbsptomato paste
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspdried basil
- 1/2 tspfennel seeds, lightly crushed
- 1/4 tspred pepper flakes (to taste, up to 1/2 tsp)
- 1 cancrushed tomatoes (28 oz standard can)
- 6 cupslow-sodium chicken or beef broth
- 1bay leaf
- 1parmesan rind (optional)
- 1 tspsalt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 8 ozlasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces
- 2 cupsbaby spinach
- 1/2 cupheavy cream (optional)
- 1 cupwhole-milk ricotta, room temperature
- 1/2 cupgrated parmesan, divided
- 1/4 tspsalt
- 1/4 tspblack pepper
- 2 tbspfresh basil, torn
- 1 cupshredded low-moisture mozzarella
Step-by-Step Instructions
Follow along and mark each step complete as you cook
Heat the olive oil in a 6-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and ground beef, break apart, and cook 7 to 8 minutes until browned with no pink remaining and ground meat reaches 160°F (71°C), or 165°F (74°C) for chicken sausage.
Add the diced onion and cook 4 minutes until translucent. Spoon off excess fat if more than 2 tablespoons has pooled.
Add the garlic, tomato paste, oregano, basil, fennel seeds, and red pepper flakes. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the paste darkens to a deep brick red.
Pour in the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Add the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, parmesan rind if using, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer 5 minutes.
Add the broken lasagna noodles. Simmer actively for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until al dente with a slight firmness in the center.
Stir in the spinach and cook 1 minute until wilted. Remove from the heat, then stir in the cream if using. Remove the bay leaf and parmesan rind. Taste and adjust salt.
Stir the room-temperature ricotta with 1/4 cup of the parmesan, salt, pepper, and torn basil. Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with a spoonful of ricotta, then scatter mozzarella and the remaining parmesan over the top.
Recipe Card Notes & Tips
- Weight & Metric Equivalents (for base 6 servings):
- Sausage: 1 lb = 450 g
- Ground beef: 1/2 lb = 225 g
- Crushed tomatoes: 1 can = 28 oz / 800 g
- Broth: 6 cups = 1.4 L
- Lasagna noodles: 8 oz = 225 g (approx. 9 standard dry sheets)
- Ricotta: 1 cup = 250 g
- Cooking for leftovers? Boil the noodles separately in salted water and add them per bowl. Noodles left in the broth keep absorbing it and turn soft overnight.
- Never stir ricotta into the pot. It splits under sustained heat and clouds the broth.
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