It’s such a rainy day today! Ugly rain, no sun, a little bit of frozen… come on where is the snow?! haha!

It doesn’t quite feel like winter – but I am SO ready for it. No matter, whatever it is, it’s officially Soup Weather!

What better soup to warm you up from the inside out than Lasagna Soup by Our Best Bites! One of my favourite recipe sites, Our Best Bites has never failed me. I think what drew me to this soup were both the simple ingredients that I had on hand already, but also how unique and delicious it was sure to be! Oh and it is.

I just finished a giant bowl – it was oh so good! I did make a few changes to the original recipe, mostly because of what I had on hand. The only extra thing I had to buy was Ricotta – a delicious cheese I have never before had to buy! It won’t be the last

The one detail about this recipe that may turn people away is the amount of steps to putting  a bowl of soup together. Don’t fear! If we were eating the entire batch of soup right now (aka we had company), I would happily toss the dry noodles into the soup for the last half hour as it simmers, and there you have it – only one extra step instead of two! Trust me – it’s worth it!

What is that extra step? Well, after cooking up the soup base of italian sausage, tomatoes, spices and chicken stock – I boiled the pasta separate so that it would freeze easily and the pasta wouldn’t get soggy or fall apart. You start your bowl off with a creamy serving of a mixture of ricotta, parmesan and cheddar, add the noodles, and ladle the chunky soup over top! There you have it – an amazing bowl of soup chock full of garlic and spicy to boot! It almost turns into a cream soup when the cheese melts and incorporates into the broth. Amazing.

Lasagna Soup

Recipe Adapted from Our Best Bites – click on over to see the original recipe!

Ingredients

1 package Italian Sausage (I used HOT, but go as spicy as you like!)
1 green pepper (chopped)
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 heaping tablespoon dried Basil
1 heaping tablespoon dried Oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 tablespoons tomato paste (I used garlic flavoured)
1 large can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
Pasta (I used bowtie! Try breaking up pieces of lasagna noodles)
salt/pepper to taste

Cheese mixture

1 package Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheese (Mozza would be perfect! I used Old Cheddar)
salt/pepper to taste

Mix everything in the cheese mixture together and pop in the fridge until you’re ready to serve!

In a large soup pot cook Italian Sausage until done. Add chopped green pepper to the pot (original recipe calls for chopped onion, I didn’t have any but it’s a great thing to add too!) with garlic, dried herb and cayenne. Add tomato paste and stir to combine. Cook for 5-10 minutes until spices are fragrant and paste has started to caramelize.

Add full can of diced tomatoes and chicken broth. Stir everything together and bring to a boil – once boiling, simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. If you prefer, add your pasta now to cook while it simmers. If not, cook your pasta separately!

Prepare your bowl with as much of the cheese mixture as tickles your fancy (I went for just over a 1/4 cup) and put the cooked pasta on top. Spoon the hot soup over top, add salt and pepper and let the cheese melt a bit. Dig in and be vocal about it! mmmmm

Tags: cheese, comfort, italian, lasagna, lasagne, ricotta, soup

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2012 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.