Lasagna Soup Is the Fall Dinner Shortcut You've Been Waiting For

Get the lasagna vibe without the lasagna work.

How many times have you wanted to eat lasagna, but had neither the time nor the patience to build and assemble all the yummy layers? There are few nights I wouldn’t say yes to a plateful of one of the culinary world’s most comforting offerings, but there are also few nights I actually choose to make it.

I have been known to quickly throw frozen meatballs, pasta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and jarred spaghetti sauce in a casserole dish to try to capture that lasagna vibe without all the work. It’s not a bad dinner, but it never truly delivers the same level of satisfaction.

Enter lasagna soup. It has that lasagna flavor profile we all know and love, but it comes together with less time and effort.

What Is Lasagna Soup?

Lasagna soup has all the basics of lasagna—noodles, ground beef, sausage, onions, garlic, tomato sauce, Italian seasonings, and the “holy trinity” of lasagna cheeses: ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan. The only ingredient in this soup that isn’t in regular lasagna is chicken broth.

Just as traditional lasagna recipes can vary, lasagna soup recipes can also vary. There are versions with turkey sausage and mushrooms, versions cooked in the Instant Pot, and versions that use various types of pasta such as rotini or bow tie.

Why Lasagna Soup Is Easier to Make Than Traditional Lasagna

In the Real Lasagna Soup recipe created by our own Chef John, he says, “If you love lasagna, but don’t love the time and effort it takes to do all that layering, then this amazing lasagna soup is for you.” The soup version is easier to make because it saves you time and effort.

There’s no layering of noodles, meat sauce, and cheese. There’s no super long baking time (which almost always ends up being longer than you think it will be). There’s no trying to keep the cooked lasagna noodles from sticking together while they wait to become layers. There’s no lasagna pan with a baked-on cheesy mess to clean when you’re done eating. (Think about it. A dirty soup pot is almost always easier to clean than a dirty casserole dish.)

I don’t want to mislead you, though. This isn’t fast food by any means. It still takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes before you can chow down, but just 20 minutes of that is prep time. The remaining minutes are to allow the soup to simmer so the wonderful flavors meld together. Compare that to our wildly popular World’s Best Lasagna recipe that has 30 minutes of prep time and takes 3 hours and 15 minutes from start to first forkful.

If you have the time, traditional lasagna is certainly worth making. But when you want the flavors of lasagna without all that work and time, lasagna soup gives you what you want.

How to Make Lasagna Soup Even Easier and Quicker

It's easy to make this recipe even quicker with a few changes. The first four steps of making Chef John’s version are all about the noodles. You boil them first, then brush them with butter and bake them until they are crisp and golden brown. This method gives some texture to the soup, but it’s not mandatory. The soup is still super delicious if you just break up uncooked lasagna noodles (or choose a different pasta shape) and let them cook in the soup broth.

Can You Put Cheese in Lasagna Soup?

Cheese isn’t always the first ingredient you think of when you’re making soup unless it’s a creamy cheese soup like beer cheese or broccoli cheese soup. In those soups, the cheese melts right into the soup, fusing with the broth or cream.

That’s not how the ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan work in lasagna soup. You mix them together and add a big dollop of the cheesy goodness to each serving, allowing it to slowly melt into the bowl of hot soup.

According to an Allrecipes recipe reviewer, it's a great soup on the first day, but on day two, it tastes even more like lasagna. Whether or not the soup lasts two days is for you to decide.

Read the original article on All Recipes.