It is Sunday, 6.30 Pm and I am drafting a web log post. Is this pure dedication or I simply don’t have a life?
I need answers and a big bowl of this.
Whoever who came up with the idea of a lasagna soup is awesome and whoever decides to give this recipe a try is equally awesome. ♥
I was giving my fridge a good wipe and re-arranging of stuffs one fine afternoon when I noticed that I have a container of ricotta, cottage cheese and fresh mozarella that I bought last week. I thought “I need to make use of this before its expiry date and no way am I gonna shove $10 down the rubbish chute again.” Yes again because I have done it before.
Tm was just telling me that every Australian household waste about 20% of the food that they purchase. Statistics have shown that average Australian Family throw about $1,036 worth of food every year. Now, how insane is that? Imagine all the things we could do with that money? Comfortably, I for sure would end up purchasing more groceries!! Don’t be mistaken as I am not targeting Australians. I believe this happens in a lot of other countries as well, particularly those developed ones. I am guilty of such an act as well.
I am a big time buyer when it comes to filling the pantry. When I go shopping for groceries, at times I get the expression from the cashier like…’she must own a restaurant’… I should wear a t-shirt that says “Obsessed with filling up the pantry”. People should just mind their own business… unless they have insurance against assaults. *Fist bump*
Having said that, overstocking the pantry is a bad habit and I definitely recognize that fact. I am telling myself that I should NOT purchase more canned stuffs till the time I’ve used up about 60% of the things I already have at that moment. Things like canned asparagus soup, canned squash, canned pumpkin, minestrone soup. I don’t need all these stuffs, In fact I don’t even use it. Now I need to think of ways to utilize all of that, thanks to my impulsive nature when it comes to shopping. A food bank next to my house at this stage would be very apt.
So I had to use up the tub of ricotta and I was contemplating on a few ideas.
- Lasagna
- Ricotta Pizza
- Ricotta omelette
- Cannelloni
- Lasagna rolls
- Eggplant lasagna
Lasagna came up three times and I reckon I really wanted the lasagna, but it was a working day and I doubt I have enough time for that. Of course I could just make a ricotta dip and eat with some tortilla chips or crostini which would take me roughly around 10 minutes, but I was in the mood for “real food”. Something hearty, warm and delicious, so this One Pot Lasagna Soup was really God sent. This recipe is really simple and it would take you only 1/3 of the time compared to preparing the classic baked lasagna.
This tastes just like lasagna, but it is in the form of a soup! Sooooo freaking cool. This is literally a One Pot Wonder!! The best part of this soup is the cheesy mix of ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan all mixed up and you place a heaping tablespoon of these in a bowl before ladling the hot lasagna soup into the bowl. You then top the lasagna soup with another tablespoon of these cheesy goodness. The ooey gooey, cheesy swirls in the soup makes it oh so amazing!! The original recipe doesn’t use mushrooms but I added some as I wanted to up the nutritional level of the soup plus I heart mushrooms!
After a long day at work, the final thing you desire to do is to spend one hour in the kitchen and then wait for another hour before you can finally have dinner and there is always the cleaning up to manage, therefore this One Pot Lasagna Soup is perfect for those nights where you are craving for lasagna, but you want it real fast and easy.
Here is the handy dandy printout!
- 6 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 onion, chopped
- 1 pound minced beef
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 200g fresh button
mushrooms, quartered (optional) - 1 15 -ounce can crushed tomatoes
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil, plus thinly sliced leaves for topping
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 oz. ricotta
- ½ c. grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Fat pinch of freshly ground pepper
- Heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat and add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute.
- Mix in minced beef and oregano. Cook until the beef is browned.
- Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in the mushrooms.
- Pour in the chicken broth, canned tomatoes, and bring to a simmer.
- Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. Do not
over cook the pasta as the pasta will get mushy.(If you are planning to make this way in advance, you might want to cook the noodles separately, and then adding some to individual bowls before ladling the soup over them) - While the pasta is cooking, in a small bowl, combine the ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, salt and pepper.
- Once the pasta is cooked, season the soup with salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Top with basil.
- Place a dollop of the cheesy mixture in each soup bowl and ladle the hot soup over the cheese.
- Top with another dollop of the cheesy mixture and scatter more basil on top.
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