From the Kitchen: Lasagna Soup

I love lasagna but hate the effort of layering all the pasta, sauce, and cheeses...which inevitably falls apart when I cut into the lasagna, anyway.  A recent snow day provided the perfect opportunity to try out this lasagna soup, which has all of the flavors of lasagna without the assembly effort!

Lasagna Soup

Adapted from Cooking Classy

Ingredients:

Soup:
1 lb ground beef or ground Italian sausage
1 small or 1/2 large onion, diced
3-5 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 5.5 (or 6) ounce can tomato paste
1 3/4 teaspoons dried basil
3/4 teaspoon dried oregnao
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
8 lasagna noodles, broken into bite-sized pieces (err on the small side!)

Topping:
1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
8 ounces ricotta cheese
Chopped fresh parsley, to garnish

Directions:

In a large saucepan, brown the ground beef or Italian sausage with the diced onions and garlic.  Drain and discard the fat.  Add the chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, dried herbs, sugar, and fresh parsley.  Simmer for 20 minutes, then salt and pepper to taste.

In a separate pot, prepare the broken lasagna noodles according to the package instructions.  Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water prior to draining the pasta. 

Add the drained pasta and 1 cup of pasta cooking water to the rest of the soup.  

In a mixing bowl, stir together the mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta cheeses.  

To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl; top with a large scoop of the cheese mixture, and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.  Serve immediately while still very hot so the cheese mixture will melt into the soup when stirred.