With spicy sausage, tender noodles, and a melty cheese topping, this Lasagna Soup recipe has all your favorite Italian ingredients simmered together in one pot.
A steaming hot bowl of Lasagna Soup makes everybody happy at dinnertime.
Soup season is in full swing and I couldn’t be more excited. Since we moved to Ohio, I’ve been looking forward to meals full of all my favorite Soups and Stews as the temperatures drop.
I already have a feeling we’ll be eating many more bowls of this tasty soup on cold nights all winter long!
What is Lasagna Soup?
Lasagna soup is everything you love about a classic Italian lasagna simmered in soup form. My family loves lasagna with lots of meat in it, so I used both hot sausage and ground beef in this soup.
After browning the meat, I added onions, garlic, and tomatoes along with Italian Seasoning. After simmering everything in chicken broth and adding curly mafalda noodles, the soup finishes with the best ingredient of all: lots of cheese.
For the cheese topping, I use a blend of three different kinds of Italian cheeses. The mix of Ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheese adds rich, creamy flavors to this soup.
A big scoop of the cheese topping on my bowl of soup made me very happy indeed. Every spoonful of soup was full of tangy tomato, hot sausage, perfectly cooked noodles, and gooey cheese.
Everyone in my family loves this Lasagna Soup. Most of us went back for a second bowl!
Easy Lasagna Soup
Perhaps the best thing about this delicious Italian soup is how easy it is. Sometimes you want lasagna without all the steps of boiling noodles, browning the meat and placing everything layer by layer in a casserole dish.
The noodles in this soup cook right in the pot with the other ingredients, so this recipe will save you both cooking and clean up time. Who wants to be stuck in the kitchen doing dishes when you could be digging into a big bowl of delicious soup?
You can make this soup ahead of time, too! Follow all the directions up to adding the noodles and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.
Once ready to serve, bring the soup to a simmer again, add the noodles and cook until tender. Waiting to add the noodles if you prep the soup in advance ensures that they won’t get mushy.
I love the way my Homemade Italian Seasoning tastes in this recipe, but your favorite store-bought Italian herb blend will work beautifully as well. If you like a spicier soup, feel free to increase the amount of red pepper in the recipe.
Likewise, if you want a little less heat, reduce the red pepper flakes by as much as you like. We all loved the taste of hot Italian sausage in this Lasagna Soup recipe but other types of sausage would likely taste good too.
If you find yourself with extra tomato paste here are some tip for freezing your leftovers.
Mafalda Noodles
What are Mafalda noodles? They’re a miniature flat noodle with curvy edges, just like a miniature lasagna noodle.
These small Mafalda noodles are absolutely perfect in Lasagna Soup, and these longer Mafalda noodles caught my eye when I was buying the others and now I can’t wait to try them too.
Using these flat curvy noodles really makes this soup feel like a spin on lasagna. If you can’t find Mafalda noodles, pretty much any curly noodle will work in the Lasagna Soup recipe. Play with it and make it your own.
Lasagna Soup Recipe
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, cook and crumble the sausage and ground beef over medium-high heat. Add the onions and the garlic to cook along with the meat. Sprinkle with Italian seasonings and red pepper flakes as everything cooks.
- Add the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Stir and increase heat to high. When soup begins to simmer, reduce to medium-high once again and add the pasta. Stir and simmer until noodles are soft, 8-10 minutes. Taste the broth and adjust spices as needed.
- Remove from the heat when the noodles are tender but still chewy. While the pasta is cooking, stir together the ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella in a small bowl.
- Scoop the soup into bowls and top with a generous scoop of the cheese mixture.
Soup Recipes
Make Lasagna Soup part of your meal rotation this fall and winter along with Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup and this Hearty Minestrone Soup. Served with slices of crusty Italian bread, this soup is guaranteed to warm you on a cold night!
Looking for even more filling soup recipes for winter? If you like this Lasagna Soup recipe, you’re also sure to love Italian Herb Meatball Soup and Creamy Turkey Noodle Soup.
If you love Italian meals, check out my Spicy Italian Stuffed Bell Peppers. It’s one of my family’s all time favorite meals and inspired this {Slow-Cooker} Stuffed Pepper Soup.
I’m also looking forward to trying this One Pot Beef Stroganoff Soup posted by Belly Full!
Hearty Lasagna Soup
Ingredients
Soup Ingredients
- 1 lb hot sausage (Italian sausage may be used as well)
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 small onions, chopped into 1/2" pieces, about 2 cups worth
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
- ½ – 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 6 oz tomato paste
- (2) 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, with garlic (fire-roasted tomatoes are great, if you can find them)
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 6-8 oz mafalda pasta, or an alternate curly pasta
Cheese Topping Ingredients
- 8 oz ricotta cheese, about 1 cup
- 2 oz Parmesan cheese, about ½ cup
- 2 oz freshly shredded Mozzarella, about ½ cup
Instructions
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, cook and crumble the sausage and ground beef over medium-high heat. Add the onions and the garlic to cook along with the meat. Sprinkle with Italian seasonings and red pepper flakes as everything cooks.
- Add the tomato paste, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Stir and increase heat to high. When soup begins to simmer, reduce to medium-high once again and add the pasta. Stir and simmer until noodles are soft, 8-10 minutes. Taste the broth and adjust spices as needed.
- Remove from the heat when the noodles are tender, but still chewy. While the pasta is cooking, stir together the ricotta, Parmesan, and Mozzarella in a small bowl.
- Scoop the soup into bowls and top with a generous scoop of the cheese mixture. Enjoy!
Nutrition
{originally published 11/11/19 – recipe notes and photos updated 10/27/21}
Evon Austin says
I made mine vegetarian with Bush’s Chili beans, sliced black olives, 5 oz baby Spinach, cottage cheese for the Ricotta, chipotle instead of the red pepper, vegetarian broth, and garden rotini pasta. It is soo delicious… Ohh My Cow!! I am a former caregiver and I’m going to gift this to my dear friend and former client who lives in a nursing home now. I visit her once a week to give her a break from cafeteria food. This will be the perfect comfort food for her and highly nutritious. She’s gonna love it. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mary. My mouth is watering now. 😛
Mary Younkin says
I’m absolutely thrilled that you love the recipe, Evon!
Momof5 says
What can you substitute the sausage for?
Do you just use 2lbs of ground beef?
Mary Younkin says
Ground beef will work just fine.
Lori Renee Johnson says
I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef. I couldn’t find any Mafalda pasta, so I broke up some lasagna noodles. I also added a bunch of spinach at the tail end. This was delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Mary Younkin says
Spinach would be good in this soup. I will have to try that, Lori.
Jannai D says
This was very tasty and a huge hit with my family. As we start to settle down with fall and winter, I like to make a lot of soups. I just added this to my collection.
Mary Younkin says
It is soup season here as well. This is a go-to for us as well.
Janis says
NEXT LEVEL YUMMY!!! This was so quick and easy to throw together… I actually let it simmer for a while before adding the pasta because I was done early. So flavorful and a meal you could serve proudly it’s that impressive. I don’t like things too spicy or chunks of tomato so I used sweet Italian sausage, dialed down the chili flakes to 1/4 and used tomato purée instead of diced. It’s such a great recipe that it leaves room for personalization. Everyone had seconds! Thank you!
Mary Younkin says
Janis – I couldn’t agree more and I love that you customized it to suit your family.
L. says
This soup is amazing! My entire family loved it – including my ultra-picky 5 YO who hates every soup he’s ever had. I’ve had other lasagna soups but the cheese mixture really makes this one next level. The only thing I did differently was to use 12 oz of pasta (bow tie), cut the parmesan in half since I was using the canned grated kind, and omitted the red pepper Flakes. So, so good. Can’t wait to make it again.
Mary Younkin says
The cheesy topping really is the perfect finish for the soup. I am glad your family enjoyed it.
Jennifer says
I tried it! It came out delicious. I recommend the cheese blend in the soup. I substituted cottage cheese small curds instead of ricotta. it came out wonderful with parmesan and mozzarella 🤤
Mary Younkin says
Thank you, Jennifer. Cottage cheese is a great suggestion.
Loraine says
On the stove simmering now can’t wait to have a bowl with pizza slices on the side should be a great meal. Very easy to make had the noodles required
Mary Younkin says
Perfect! Enjoy, Loraine.
Becky says
Made this 10/8/22 – YUM!! We eat a Low Carb/Keto diet because my husband has T2 diabetes. I really wanted to make this soup though. So, using Low Carb Pasta did the trick. I used ground turkey instead of beef, pureed tomatoes instead of diced and only 7 cups of broth (I don’t like my soups to have too much liquid). Turned out great with only 13 NC per 1 cup serving (using regular pasta was almost double the Net Carbs and regular pasta spikes my husbands blood sugar so it’s never an option for us). The scoop of cheese mixture on the top makes it taste just like lasagna. Great recipe that I’ll be making again and again!! ~ Becky
Mary Younkin says
Thank you, Becky. I am so glad you were able to find some easy swaps to fit your husband’s diet. Thank you for sharing them.
Cheryl says
Made this tonight. Ran out of chicken broth so I added 3 cups beef broth. It will be ready soon. Smells divine and very tasty.
Faith says
Could you use marinara instead of the canned tomatoes and tomato paste?
Mary Younkin says
You absolutely could, Faith. It might need a little more broth to have enough liquid for your noodles.
Randi says
Sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it. Could this be made in a crock pot? Can it be frozen & reheated?
Mary Younkin says
You could make it in crockpot, just make sure you don’t overcook your noodles. For this reason, I probably wouldn’t freeze it either. The noodles just don’t tend to freeze well and not be mush when they get thawed.
Michele G Madrid says
Thank you for doing this recipe from scratch. I believe there’s a few of us out there. The lasagna soup is a perfect comfort dinner.
Mary Younkin says
Thank you, Michele. It is the perfect comfort food dinner for sure.
Serena says
This was delicious! I have a special kid who can’t handle alot of cheese and one who usually only wants noodles. So it was a perfect option for the whole family to customize and enjoy lasagna together.
Mary Younkin says
It sounds like this worked out perfectly then, Serena!
Laura says
Omg this is SO good! Definitely my new favorite soup
Mary Younkin says
Thank you for sharing, Laura. It really is quite delicious!
Tawny says
I didn’t have any Italian sausage so I just used ground beef but other than that stuck to the recipe and this recipe was delicious! Definitely making it again! 🤩🤩
Mary Younkin says
Thank you, Tawny. I am happy to hear you like it so much.
Priscilla says
I made this tonight and my family loved it. I substituted both meats for venison and ground pork and also substituted the ricotta for cottage cheese and it turned out very yummy! This will definitely be in our rotation for winter soups! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe ❤️❤️
Mary Younkin says
ooh! I’ve never tried it with cottage cheese. Thanks for the tip, Priscilla. That could come in handy.
Traci says
Oh holy cow!! What a delicious soup and easy! This will be a new comfort food for me.
Mary Younkin says
I am so happy you found it, Traci. It is one of our favorites, too!
Linda says
Best soup I’ve ever made! So extremely flavorful, hearty!
Mary Younkin says
Thank you, Linda. We love it at our house!
Dina says
Has anyone tried beef broth instead of chicken? I was just assuming with hamburger and sausage as the meats that beef may be the better choice
Mary Younkin says
Beef broth works as well, Dina.