Lasagna Soup

By stancec44

The soup starts off with a mixture of onions, garlic, spices and tomatoes – all of which are typically found in the tomato sauce that is the backbone of a good lasagna. Two types of tomatoes are used: canned, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. The tomato paste adds a very intense tomato flavor, making the soup seem much richer than a soup made with diced tomatoes alone would.

I used malfaldine pasta for my soup. The ribbon-like malfaldine pasta has ruffled edges on both sides and makes for a particularly nice presentation. Mine came in very long ribbons and I broke the long pieces down into 6-inch lengths before adding it to the pot.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups low fat or fat-free ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
• 1 cup grated fontina cheese, divided
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups diced onion (approx. 2 medium)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp tomato paste (try using homemade for an extra burst of flavor!)
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1-lb Italian chicken sausage, mild or spicy, diced
• 28-oz canned, diced tomatoes
• 6 cups chicken stock
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 8 oz malfaldine pasta or other wide noodles (or cook wide lasagne noodles and cut into thin strips-if you do this, just add to soup a few minutes before serving)

Preparation

Step 1

In a small bowl, combine ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup asiago cheese and 1/2 cup fontina cheese. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Set aside. Reserve remaining asiago and fontina cheeses for topping.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until just tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste, dried basil, dried oregano and red pepper flakes. Add in diced sausage, tomatoes and stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer the soup for 25 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed.

Turn the heat on the soup up to high and add in the pasta. Cook pasta as directed on the packaging, or until tender.

While the noodles are cooking, divide the ricotta mixture evenly into eight serving dishes, placing one scoop into the bottom of each bowl.

Remove the soup from the heat and ladle over the ricotta mixture in your individual soup bowls. Sprinkle with remaining fontina cheese and serve.