Lasagna Soup

Some nights lasagna sounds perfect right up until you remember the part where you have to build it. Lasagna soup skips the construction project without giving up the sausage, tomato, noodles, ricotta, or melted mozzarella. Italian sausage, onion, garlic, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and broth give you the same savory red-sauce backbone, while broken lasagna noodles cook directly in the pot instead of waiting politely in layers.

Brown the sausage with the onion first, then give the tomato paste a minute in the hot pot before the liquids go in. That little bit of direct heat deepens the tomato flavor and keeps the broth from tasting like somebody simply opened cans near each other. Once the soup boils, the broken noodles need about 10 to 12 minutes and an occasional stir so they stay separate instead of forming one legally binding pasta document.

The cheese belongs in the bowl, not the pot. A dollop of ricotta and a handful of mozzarella melt into each serving at their own pace, giving you creamy pockets rather than one uniformly dairy-heavy broth. Fresh basil finishes it. You get sausage, tomato, tender noodles, and melted cheese in every bowl—with no layering, no baking dish, and no 20-minute cooling period during which lasagna usually sits on the counter daring you to cut it too soon.