Lasagna Soup with Ricotta and Fresh Basil

Lasagna soup is lasagna without the layering, the baking or the washing up. Beef and onion browned in one pot, a rich tomato broth, lasagna sheets broken straight into the pan, and a spoonful of seasoned ricotta dropped on top of each bowl. You get the same flavour in forty minutes, with one pot to wash, and it tastes better on the second day.

Prep Time	10	Cook Time	30
Servings	6	Calories	540 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 500 g (1 lb) ground beef, or half beef and half Italian sausage
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes, optional
• 1 tin (400 g) chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin (400 g) crushed tomatoes or passata
• 1.2 litres (5 cups) beef or chicken stock
• 10 lasagna sheets, broken into rough pieces
• 250 g (1 cup) ricotta
• 60 g (3/4 cup) grated parmesan
• A large handful of fresh basil, torn
• 125 g (1 cup) grated mozzarella, to serve

Half beef and half Italian sausage is the version worth making if you have the choice: the sausage brings fennel and a little extra fat, and the broth is noticeably richer for it.

Two different tins of tomatoes is not fussiness. The chopped ones keep pieces of fruit in the broth, the crushed ones give body. One tin of each is the easiest way to get both without reducing the soup for an hour.

Essential Kitchen Tools

Large pot (5 litres)	Browning the meat and holding all the broth
Wooden spoon	Breaking the meat and scraping the bottom
Small bowl	Mixing the ricotta topping
Ladle	Serving without breaking the noodles
Box grater	Parmesan and mozzarella grated fresh melt better

A wide pot beats a tall one here: the meat browns in a single layer instead of stewing, and that first browning is where most of the flavour comes from.

Why This Recipe Works

A traditional lasagna takes an afternoon: the sauce, the béchamel, the layering, the baking, then the resting. This soup keeps the three things that actually make lasagna taste like lasagna — browned beef, a long-simmered tomato base and creamy cheese — and throws away everything else.

Cooking the pasta directly in the broth is what ties it together. The starch released by the lasagna sheets thickens the soup slightly, so it clings to the spoon instead of running off, exactly as a baked lasagna holds together on the plate.

And the ricotta on top is not decoration. Dropped in cold, it melts slowly into the hot broth as you eat, so every few spoonfuls taste different: first sharp tomato, then creamy cheese, then both.

Pro Tips for Better Results

Brown the beef properly. Press it flat and leave it alone for three minutes. Stirring from the start steams the meat grey and the broth stays thin in flavour.

Cook the tomato paste. Two minutes in the hot pot turns it from sharp to sweet. It is the single biggest improvement in this recipe.

Break the sheets by hand. Irregular pieces look like torn lasagna and hold the broth better than neat squares.

Stir while the pasta cooks. Lasagna sheets stick to each other and to the bottom of the pot more than any other pasta.

Season at the end. Stock, parmesan and tinned tomatoes all bring salt of their own.

Serve immediately. This is the one soup that does not wait: the noodles keep drinking the broth every minute they sit.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat	Fiber
540 kcal	32g	48g	24g	5g

Figures are for one of six bowls with all the cheese. Using lean beef and half the mozzarella brings it to around 440 kcal.