Crockpot Lasagna Soup

This is a fantastic recipe! It’s not necessary to cook the soup in a crockpot. But for me it’s easier and the ‘sauce’ cooks long like old time spaghetti sauce recipes. Besides, it make the house smell homey!

FYI, this recipe makes a large potful of soup. If that’s too much for you, just make half of the recipe.

For the soup:
2 tsp. olive oil
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. chicken Italian sausage
3 c. chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 Tbsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 small can tomato paste
1 28-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2-1 qt. boxes chicken stock
8 oz. mafalda or fusilli or curly egg noodle pasta (the idea is to mimic lasagna noodles)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the cheesy yum:
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1-2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese (depending on how much cheese you need/want.)

Preparation:

• In a skillet, heat the oil and brown the meat, onion and garlic. Cook over medium to medium high to medium heat until the meat is browned. Drain off fat, if necessary.
• Put the rest of the soup ingredients, except for the pasta and cheese, in the crockpot (DO NOT add pasta and cheese.) Stir to combine.
• Stir the meat mixture into the other ingredients in the crockpot.
• Cook for the soup 3-4 hours on the crockpot’s high setting.
• There are two ways you can prepare the pasta. (1) I was in a hurry, so I scooped out about a quart of the broth into a sauce pot, added the pasta and cooked it on the stove until it was a little more done than al dente. Then I added the pasta with all of the liquid back in the soup. (2) OR you could also just add the pasta into the crockpot during the last 30 or so minutes of cooking time. NOTE: I have not cooked it this way and it may take longer to fully cook the pasta, so just make sure you have time to let the soup cook a bit longer if the pasta isn’t fully done yet.
• NOTE: Don’t overcook the pasta. It will become mushy and less tasty.
• Prepare the cheesy yum by combining all ingredients. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Place a dollop of the cheesy yum in each soup bowl and ladle the hot soup over the cheese. Serve with a green salad and crusty Italian bread.

If you have leftover soup, it will taste better than the first serving! If you have leftover cheese (yea, right) it would be good toasted on leftover Italian bread (yea, right) or on eggs, potatoes… you get the idea.

Adapted from http://www.afarmgirlsdabbles.com/2011/03/24/lasagna-soup/