A slow-cooker soup with ground beef and Italian sausage in a tomato broth, with broken lasagna noodles cooked separately and a ricotta topping spooned on at the table.
Twenty minutes at the hob, five or six hours on Low, and the pasta boiled while the soup finishes. Eight servings.
Why This Recipe Works
- The meat is browned first and drained. Beef and sausage tipped raw into a slow cooker release fat that has nowhere to go, and a soup with a layer of orange grease on it is the usual result.
- Both marinara and crushed tomatoes. The jar brings seasoning and sweetness, the tin brings body and acidity — using either alone gives a soup that is respectively too sweet or too flat.
- The noodles are cooked separately to just al dente. Lasagna sheets broken into pieces have enormous surface area and would drink the broth and disintegrate over five hours in the pot.
- Half a pound of Italian sausage against a full pound of beef. The sausage is the seasoning — its fennel and its own spice mix are doing work no amount of dried Italian seasoning could replicate.
- Ricotta mixed with Parmesan before it goes on. It seasons the dollop and stiffens it slightly, so it sits on the soup rather than dissolving into it.
Building The Bowl
A lasagna is layered in a dish; this one is layered in the bowl, and step 7 does it in a specific order. The three cheeses that would be spread between sheets of pasta all arrive at the top instead.
The soup
Ladled first and hot. Beef, sausage, onion and garlic in marinara, crushed tomatoes and broth, with the drained noodles already stirred through.
The ricotta mixture
A cup of whole-milk ricotta mixed with half the Parmesan, spooned on in dollops. Mixing the Parmesan into the ricotta rather than sprinkling it separately is what seasons the dollop — plain ricotta on hot soup tastes of very little.
The mozzarella
A cup shredded, over the ricotta, where the heat of the soup softens it without fully melting it into the broth.
The remaining Parmesan and basil
The other quarter cup of Parmesan and two tablespoons of chopped basil, last. Basil on top rather than in the pot, because five hours on Low would leave nothing of it.
Assembled per bowl rather than stirred into the pot, which keeps the ricotta in distinct spoonfuls and means leftovers can be topped fresh the next day.
Ingredient Notes
- Ground beef and Italian sausage
- A pound and a half pound respectively, both browned together to 160°F before anything else happens. The sausage can be casings removed or bulk, whichever your shop sells.
- Lasagna noodles, broken
- Eight ounces, snapped into bite-size pieces before boiling. Breaking them by hand gives the ragged edges the dish is known for — this is not a place for neat cutting.
- Whole-milk ricotta
- One cup, whole-milk. Part-skim is looser and slumps into the broth instead of holding as a dollop.
- Marinara and crushed tomatoes
- A 24-ounce jar and a 28-ounce tin. Both, not one or the other — they contribute different things and the balance between them is the base of the soup.
- Fresh basil
- Two tablespoons chopped, scattered at the very end. Dried basil in the pot is not a substitute; this is a finishing herb here.
How to Make It
Brown the meats to 160°F
Brown the ground beef, sausage and onion in a skillet over medium-high heat, breaking up the meat, until the ground meats reach 160°F. Drain the excess fat.
Add the garlic
Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds.
Build the soup in the cooker
Transfer to the slow cooker. Add the marinara, crushed tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
Cook on Low
Cover and cook on LOW 5 to 6 hours.
Boil the noodles separately
Cook the broken lasagna noodles separately until just al dente; drain.
Stir the noodles in at the end
Stir the noodles into the soup just before serving.
Top each bowl
Mix the ricotta with half the Parmesan. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the ricotta mixture, mozzarella, remaining Parmesan and basil.
Success Tips
- Drain the browned meat properly — the fat has nowhere to escape to in a covered crock.
- Break the noodles into rough pieces by hand before they go in the water.
- Pull the pasta at just al dente; it softens further the moment it meets hot soup.
- Stir the noodles in immediately before serving rather than when the timer goes.
- Mix the Parmesan into the ricotta rather than sprinkling both loose over the bowl.
Serving Ideas
Garlic bread, and a green salad if you want one. It is essentially a lasagna dinner served with a spoon.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate up to 4 days. Store the soup and any leftover noodles separately if you can — the noodles keep swelling in the broth.
Freeze
Freeze the soup WITHOUT noodles for up to 3 months. Cooked lasagna pieces go soft and ragged after freezing.
Reheat
Gently on the hob with a splash of broth, then fresh toppings per bowl.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I cook the noodles in the slow cooker to save a pan?
They will not survive it. Broken lasagna sheets have a lot of surface area, and five to six hours in hot broth turns them to paste and thickens the whole pot. Boiling them separately is the recipe's own instruction and the reason the soup stays a soup.
Can I use all beef, or all sausage?
You can, but the seasoning changes noticeably. The half pound of Italian sausage is carrying fennel and its own spice blend, and all-beef versions taste distinctly plainer for it.
My leftovers were thick rather than soupy.
The noodles kept absorbing broth in the fridge. Loosen with extra broth when reheating, or store the noodles separately from the start.
The ricotta disappeared into the soup.
Usually part-skim ricotta, or dollops added before the soup was ladled. Use whole-milk ricotta, mix it with the Parmesan first, and spoon it onto the soup once it is already in the bowl.
