When lasagna sounds good but layering does not, one pot lasagna soup brings tender pasta, rich tomato broth, savory beef, and plenty of melted cheese to the bowl.

If you love lasagna but would rather not spend your evening boiling noodles, layering cheese, wrestling slippery pasta sheets, and waiting for a casserole dish to finish baking, this one pot lasagna soup gives you everything you actually came for!

Ingredients

For Lasagna Soup

• 1 tablespoon olive oil, only if needed depending on how lean your beef is
• 1 pound 85% to 90% lean ground beef
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced, about 1 1/2 cups
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional but highly recommended
• 1 can, 28 ounces, crushed tomatoes
• 1 can, 14.5 ounces, diced tomatoes, preferably petite diced
• 5 cups low-sodium beef broth, plus up to 1 additional cup as needed
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, optional, depending on acidity of your tomatoes
• 8 ounces uncooked lasagna noodles, about 9 standard noodles
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, plus more for serving
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, optional

For Ricotta Topping

• 1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley or basil
• Pinch of kosher salt
• A few grinds of black pepper

For Serving

• Extra shredded mozzarella
• Freshly grated Parmesan
• Fresh basil
• Red pepper flakes
• Extra virgin olive oil, optional

Offers 6 generous servings!

How to Make One Pot Lasagna Soup

Place a 5 to 6-quart Dutch oven or heavy soup pot over medium-high heat and let it warm for about 1 minute, then add ground beef. If your beef is very lean or pot looks dry, add olive oil first.

Break meat apart with a wooden spoon into small but noticeable crumbles, around 1/2 inch is ideal, because I like getting little bites of beef rather than having meat disappear into broth like tiny brown confetti.

Let beef sit against hot surface for 30 to 45 seconds between stirs so it actually browns instead of steaming, then continue cooking for about 6 to 8 minutes until no raw pink sections remain. 

Take a look at fat in pot before moving on. You want roughly 1 tablespoon left behind because it carries plenty of flavor into onion, but you do not want a shiny oil slick greeting everyone at dinner.

Spoon off excess if necessary, then add diced onion along with about half of salt. Lower heat to medium and cook onion for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pieces soften and edges become translucent.

Watch what is happening rather than worshipping stopwatch here. If onion starts browning quickly, lower heat a little. If nothing is happening after several minutes, turn it up slightly. Small adjustments like this are what make home cooking work!

Add minced garlic, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, oregano, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir continuously for about 60 to 90 seconds.

Tomato paste should darken from bright red to a slightly deeper brick color, garlic should smell fragrant, and herbs should suddenly become much more noticeable.

Do not wander away during this part because garlic can go from fragrant to scorched surprisingly fast, and burned garlic has never once improved anyone’s evening!

Pour in crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes with their juices, and 5 cups beef broth, scraping your spoon firmly across bottom of pot to loosen any browned bits left from beef. Those browned bits are flavor, so rescue them!

Add remaining salt and sugar if using, then increase heat to medium-high and bring soup to a gentle boil.

Once bubbling steadily, reduce heat to medium or medium-low so you have an active simmer rather than an aggressive boil that sends tomato droplets decorating your stovetop.

While soup comes up to temperature, break lasagna noodles into irregular pieces roughly 1 1/2 to 2 inches across. I usually snap each noodle lengthwise once and then into three or four pieces.

Add broken noodles gradually while stirring so they do not stack together and glue themselves into one impressive but inconvenient pasta brick.

Make sure most pieces are submerged in liquid, then simmer uncovered for about 12 to 15 minutes, stirring thoroughly every 2 to 3 minutes, especially across bottom of pot where noodles love to settle.

This noodle stage is where you want to pay attention to texture rather than blindly following package timing. Start tasting a piece at about 11 minutes. You want pasta tender all way through with a tiny bit of resistance in center, since noodles will continue softening while soup sits.

If broth thickens faster than noodles soften, pour in another 1/2 cup broth. Add remaining 1/2 cup only if needed. Pasta brands absorb different amounts of liquid, so treating broth quantity as adjustable is far better than forcing every pot into exactly same measurement.

Once noodles are tender, reduce heat to low and stir in 1/3 cup Parmesan along with fresh basil and parsley. Let soup simmer very gently for another 1 to 2 minutes, then taste broth.

This is your moment to make small corrections. If tomato flavor tastes too sharp, add another small pinch of sugar. If flavors taste muted, add salt a little at a time.

If soup is thicker than you want, splash in broth. If it looks slightly thinner than you expected, resist urge to panic because pasta will continue absorbing liquid as soup rests.

Remove pot from heat and let soup stand for about 5 minutes. Do not skip this rest! Broth settles, noodles finish absorbing flavor, and soup thickens just enough to give every spoonful that lasagna-like body instead of tasting like tomato broth with pasta floating around.

While soup rests, stir ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, chopped herbs, pinch of salt, and black pepper together in a small bowl. You could simply spoon plain ricotta on top, but this seasoned mixture takes about 60 seconds and tastes considerably better.

I keep topping fairly thick so it sits beautifully in center of hot soup and slowly melts around edges instead of immediately disappearing.

Ladle soup into wide bowls, making sure every person gets plenty of beef and lasagna pieces rather than giving one lucky diner half of pot’s noodles. Spoon a generous dollop of ricotta mixture into center, scatter mozzarella and Parmesan over top, and finish with fresh basil.

Give cheese about 30 seconds against hot soup before serving, and you will get those wonderfully stretchy mozzarella strands when spoon dives in!

Serving Suggestions

This one pot lasagna soup is plenty substantial on its own, but a few simple sides can turn it into a full dinner spread.

• Serve it with warm garlic bread for scooping up tomato broth left at bottom of bowl. A crusty baguette brushed with olive oil and toasted works just as well if you want something simpler.
• A crisp Caesar salad is excellent alongside rich tomato, beef, and cheese flavors. You could also serve a basic green salad with romaine, cucumber, red onion, and a bright vinaigrette.
• Roasted broccoli, asparagus, or green beans work nicely when you want vegetables without adding another complicated recipe to dinner.
• For a dinner-party-style presentation, bring pot straight to table along with small bowls of ricotta mixture, Parmesan, mozzarella, basil, and red pepper flakes so everyone can finish their own serving.

A steaming bowl of one pot lasagna soup gives you all those flavors that make homemade lasagna worth craving, rich tomato sauce, browned beef, tender pasta, garlic, herbs, ricotta, Parmesan, and stretchy mozzarella, without turning dinner into a stack-and-layer project! 

Hungry for more feel-good meals? Explore these 21 Anti-Inflammatory Breakfast Recipes for a nourishing start and 10 Anti-Inflammatory Dinner Recipes for delicious evenings that make healthy eating easy!