Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup

Valentine Day week. I made the valentines, all hundred of them, because the tradition continues and my endurance for small-scale greeting card production remains tragically high. Tyler made his own this year, which means they are written in handwriting that looks like a seismograph and I am proud of him for the effort.

Dave gave me my chocolate bar. I gave him a new pair of work gloves because his old ones had holes in every finger and the man was essentially working bare-handed in February, which is either brave or foolish and with Dave it is always both. He put on the gloves and held up his hands and said perfect, and he meant the gloves and I heard everything else.

I made chicken parmesan for Amber, as planned, on Tuesday night. She ate it with that small smile and did not ask why. She did not need to ask. The food was the answer to a question she had not asked, and the answer was: I see you. I see the crush you think is a secret. I see the nervousness and the hope. I see it all, and here is chicken parmesan because I love you and this is how I say it.

Justin came home from school with a Valentine from a girl in his class. Her name is Sophie and the Valentine had a pun about being sweet, and Justin turned red and shoved it in his backpack and said it is nothing, which means it is everything. He is eleven and discovering that the world contains girls, which is a discovery that will change the trajectory of his life, and I am not ready for it, and nobody is ever ready for it, and the readiness does not matter. The discovery happens anyway.

On the road I made a slow cooker lasagna soup, which is a thing I invented for Valentine Day on the road, because you cannot make lasagna in a truck but you can make soup that tastes like lasagna. Ground beef, Italian sausage, crushed tomatoes, lasagna noodles broken into pieces, Italian seasoning, and a dollop of ricotta stirred in at the end. It is not lasagna. It is the idea of lasagna, liquefied, and it is warm and cheesy and perfect for February, which is the month most in need of comfort, and comfort is what soup does best.

The lasagna soup happened because love is resourceful, and a truck cab is not a kitchen, and February is not the month to go without something warm and Italian and deeply satisfying. I had the slow cooker and I had the ingredients and I had the will, and that turns out to be enough. This is the recipe I make on the road when I need lasagna and lasagna cannot happen—and honestly, after all these years, I’m not sure I’d choose the real thing over this.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 6–8 hours (low) or 3–4 hours (high) | Total Time: Up to 8 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bulk Italian sausage (or links, casings removed)
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups beef broth
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
8 lasagna noodles, broken into rough 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella, for serving
Fresh parsley or basil, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Brown the meat. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef and Italian sausage together, breaking up with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
Load the slow cooker. Transfer the browned meat to your slow cooker. Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, beef broth, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes if using, and a generous pinch of salt and black pepper. Stir to combine.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours or HIGH for 3–4 hours. The soup will deepen in flavor the longer it goes.
Add the noodles. In the last 30–45 minutes of cooking, stir in the broken lasagna noodle pieces. Replace the lid and cook until the noodles are tender but not mushy.
Finish with ricotta. Just before serving, drop in the ricotta by the spoonful and stir gently so it swirls through the broth in soft, creamy pockets rather than disappearing entirely.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top each with shredded mozzarella and fresh parsley or basil if you have it. Eat while it’s hot. This is February food. It does not benefit from cooling down.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup — The Idea of Lasagna, Liquefied