If you've ever craved homemade lasagna on a busy weeknight, chances are you either settled for the frozen kind, or waited until the weekend to make it. While it isn't the most technically challenging dish, lasagna made from scratch can still be a time-consuming ordeal. Between the Bolognese sauce, the layers of pasta, cheese, (and béchamel if you decide to go all out), there's a good amount of cooking and assembling that happens before a lasagna even goes in the oven. But for those occasions where you don't have the time or ingredients to make a party-size tray of it, cookbook author Danny Freeman has shared the perfect solution: lasagna soup.
In a TikTok that went so viral that it managed to get SZA's attention, Freeman, who goes by @dannylovespasta on the app, shared a recipe for a lasagna in the form of an easy-to-make soup. The cooking process is simplified from the get-go. Instead of making your own pasta sauce, Freeman's recipe calls for a jar of Rao's "Homemade" Marinara. To this, all you need to add is garlic, onions, ground beef, and Italian sausage. The rest of the lasagna ingredients go in the exact same pot, including the pasta.
Other TikTokers who've tried the recipe have cooked the pasta separately, then cut it into neat little pieces before adding it to the soup, but according to Freeman, you can just break the uncooked noodles right into the pot. It's a huge time-saver, and as an added bonus, the pasta starch makes the soup extra velvety.
Unlike regular lasagna, lasagna soup doesn't have ricotta in it. But it does have a generous amount of both shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. The heavy cream also adds plenty of richness, and even without the ricotta, this soup is pretty close in flavor to actual lasagna. It isn't nearly as heavy, but it's definitely thick for a soup unless you decide to thin it out with more chicken broth as others have suggested.
Ultimately, if you like hearty soups as much as you like lasagna (we assume SZA probably does), you'll definitely want to try this dish out for yourself. Learn how to make it step by step, and check out Freeman's full recipe ahead.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
½ pound ground beef
½ pound Italian sausage
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 jar (24 ounces) marinara sauce (we use Rao's Homemade)
3 cups chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream
8 ounces lasagna noodles
½ cup grated Parmesan
8 ounces shredded mozzarella
¼ cup basil
Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a large sauce or sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until color has faded, or about 7 minutes.
2. Stir in garlic and sauté for one minute. Then add beef, Italian sausage, salt, pepper, and optional red pepper flakes. Break up meat and cook until there are no pink spots left.
3. Stir in marinara sauce. Then add chicken broth and heavy cream and bring to a boil.
4. Once the soup is boiling, add lasagna noodles and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan and mozzarella until melted. Top with basil.
