By Christina Morales
For more than a century, Americans have adapted dishes with Italian roots like fettuccine Alfredo, chicken Parmesan and spaghetti with meatballs. Lasagna soup is the latest, a recipe that aims to take the work out of making the pasta casserole by mixing its components into a one-pot soup.
For its current moment in the spotlight, it can thank a Lego train. Last year, a TikTok account tried to determine how many sheets of lasagna it would take to stop the toy locomotive (24, as it turns out). Danny Freeman, who posts as @dannylovespasta on social media, responded with a video from his kitchen in Beacon, New York. He tossed broken lasagna into a soup of marinara and ground beef and stirred it together.
A few days later, singer SZA made a request: “RECIPE PLEASE KING,” and Freeman posted it. With more than 21 million views, Freeman’s version has become the foundation for dozens of online recreations and adaptations, including vegetarian and white-bean-and-pesto soups.
“It feels like you’re eating a home-cooked meal that your grandmother spent all day doing, but it’s something you throw together for your family,” said Freeman, the author of the 2023 cookbook “Danny Loves Pasta,” who began posting recipes online during the pandemic. He now makes lasagna soup at home at least once every two weeks during the winter. “It feels new and fresh,” he said, “even though it’s been around for a long time.”
Traditional lasagna, baked in a casserole dish, first became popular in the 1930s in Italian American restaurants and was presented as frozen food in the 1950s, said Ian MacAllen, the author of “Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American.” The soup version was likely first introduced at Windsor’s Lounge at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago during the 1990s, when red-sauce Italian restaurants began to close, he said.
The soup gained traction in the late aughts, likely when the Campbell’s Soup Co. published a recipe for it that included beef broth. MacAllen said that a rise in the use of slow cookers also could’ve contributed to the soup’s popularity.
Italian American recipes like lasagna soup have nostalgic staying power. The soup provides the same sense of comfort, MacAllen said, and in a world dealing with wars, inflation and fallout from the pandemic, people are seeking that contentment from Italian American cuisine.
“They’re eating their feelings, and it tastes like Italian food,” he said.
Blount Fine Foods has been making its lasagna soup, made with turkey sausage, at Wegmans since 2019. But last year, as social-media posts about lasagna soup went viral, the company introduced it in 3,000 grocery stores. It is one of the manufacturer’s five top-selling soup flavors, said Todd Blount, the president and CEO.
A year after Freeman’s posts about lasagna soup first appeared, people are making wilder versions, especially in winter.
In January, Janelle Smith, an influencer, posted her recipe for white chicken lasagna soup from her kitchen in Atlanta. This version is creamier than the original soup.
“I said: ‘I love Alfredo, I love lasagna,” Smith recalled. “Let me put the two together.’”
Lasagna soup
By Lidey Heuck
This simple, one-pot soup delivers all the comfort of a classic lasagna with very little of the work. A jar of marinara sauce is its secret to speedy flavor, along with a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage (though for ease, you can use one or the other), plus a pinch of ground nutmeg. Dried lasagna noodles are broken into small pieces and cooked directly in the soup, thickening the broth with their starches as they soften. Don’t skip the ricotta-Parmesan topping; it adds richness and the unmistakable essence of lasagna. This soup comes together quickly and is best served right away; the noodles will continue to absorb the broth as it sits.
Yield: 6 servings
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic (from about 6 cloves)
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage (or sausages, with casings removed)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper, plus more to taste
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons tomato paste
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (24-ounce) jar marinara sauce
8 ounces dried lasagna noodles, broken crosswise into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups/12 ounces whole-milk ricotta
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn, plus more for serving
Preparation:
1. In a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent but not browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant.
2. Add the beef, sausage, oregano, nutmeg, crushed red pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, until starting to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring often.
3. Add the chicken broth and marinara sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the lasagna noodles, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are tender and the broth has reduced slightly.
4. While the soup simmers, combine the ricotta and Parmesan in a medium bowl. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper and mix well; set aside.
5. Off the heat, stir the cream and basil into the soup, then taste and add more salt and crushed red pepper, if desired.
6. Serve the soup in shallow bowls, topped with a large dollop of the ricotta mixture and a few torn basil leaves.