During the cold winter months, comfort food and I are dear friends. I start craving chili at the first sign of frost, and it continues well into April.
I love soup! And I am bundling soup, chili, chowder, and stew into this immense love for comfort food. There is nothing like curling up by the fire to a warm bowl of goodness.
While recently visiting Savannah, she prepared this amazing Lasagna Soup. Lasagna soup had been on my radar; I just hadn’t had a chance to try it. It was FAB-U-LOUS, and even though I was not the one in the kitchen, it came together quickly.
The grocery store shelves in Atlanta are like ours, somewhat empty. Therefore, she could not find dairy-free ricotta. Savannah is dairy intolerant and decided to go with dairy-free cream cheese instead. I want to point this out because she improvised with the cream cheese. However, if you go with the ricotta, omit the cream cheese.
Make sure to buy the regular lasagna noodles for this recipe. No-boil pasta will turn out too mushy.
Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 1 medium zucchini diced
- 1 to 1 1/2 pound Italian sausage
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 (8-ounce) cream cheese (or substitute use the ricotta mixture mentioned in notes)
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes undrained
- 1 jar Raos Arrabita Mariana sauce
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar optional
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- Lasagna noodles
- Italian parsley or fresh basil to garnish
- 8 ounces whole-milk ricotta cheese optional and substitute for cream cheese
- 1 1/4 cups finely grated parmesan cheese optional and substitute for cream cheese
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg optional and substitute for cream cheese
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium heat in a Dutch oven. Sauce onions until they start to sweat. Add zucchini and cook until tender crisp. Add minced garlic and sauce until fragrant. Using a slotted spoon, remove to a plate while you brown the sausage.
- Add Italian sausage to the Dutch oven and brown, crumbling as you cook. (If needed add additional olive oil.) Drain if needed.
- When the sausage has browned, add the onion mixture back to the pan. Add the white wine and cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese has melted. (Skip the cream cheese if using ricotta mixture.)
- Add diced tomatoes, marinara, chicken broth, salt, sugar, and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Continue to cook over medium-low heat.
- In a separate pot, boil lasagna noodles according to package instuctions. When cooked, drain and cut lasagna noodles into small squares. If you are serving the entire pot of soup, add all of the noodles to the pot. If you are going to have leftovers keep the noodles separate and add to each individual bowl of soup.
- If using ricotta, mix the ricotta, Parmesan and nutmeg while the noodles are cooking, set aside.
- If you are serving with ricotta too each serving with dollops of mixture.
- Garnish with parsley or basil and serve.
