Lasagna Soup

You all know already that I'm a soup lover.  This soup is definitely one of my favorites.  I found the recipe about 2 years ago and me and my family fell in love.  Being the soup lover I am, I could have soup at least once a week in the fall/winter, but my husband... not so much.

I think many meals - soup in particular - are sometimes best the second and third time, but my husband does NOT like leftovers.  We have many lunches where I just say we are having leftovers and he will make peanut butter sandwiches instead.

The recipe looks long, but it's a really easy soup to make.  The very best part is the ricotta cheese mixture that goes in the bottom of the bowl under noodles and soup.  It MAKES the dish - I promise!  It's an art to dipping your spoon to the bottom and catching a little bit of this goodness with each bite.

Also, you'll notice in one of my pictures that I've browned the sausage using what I've heard is a potato masher.  Growing up, Mom used a hand mixer to "mash" potatoes and used this potato masher utensil for browning meat.  In college I was helping one of my roommates in the kitchen and got it out to mash the meat and she questioned why I was using a potato masher for meat.  I simply told her that it's not a potato masher, that it helps crumble meat when you're browning it.  She assured me that it was called a potato masher and that was its function, but I'll still refer to it in our house as the meat masher - haha!

Anyway, here's the process with the recipe below!

Heat the oil in the pot and brown the sausage. 

Add the onions and cook until they are soft.

Add the garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes.  (Notice: MEAT masher)

Add tomato paste and cook for 4 minutes, then add tomatoes, stock and bay leaves.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins.

While those flavors are developing, make your pasta in a separate pot and stir together the ricotta cheesy goodness.

Once the soup is ready, start  putting together the bowls!  First, some cheesy yum..

Then a few noodles..

Ladle in some soup.

And top with mozzarella!

Lasagna Soup

2 T olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. Italian sausage
2 c. chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 t. dried oregano
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
2 T tomato paste
1 28 oz. can fire roasted tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 c. chicken stock
16 oz. pasta (rotini or bowtie)
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Ricotta mixture:
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 c. grated parmesan
1/4 t. salt
pinch of ground pepper

Topping: mozzarella cheese

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add sausage and brown.  Add onion and cook until soft.  Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes and cook for one minute.  Add tomato paste and cook for 4 minutes.  Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Cook pasta in a separate pot according to it's directions on packaging.

In a small bowl, mix ricotta, parmesan cheese, salt a pepper and stir until combined.

Right before serving, add basil, salt and pepper to soup pot.

In individual bowls, place a dollop of ricotta mixture in bottom of the bowl.  Spoon noodles on top and pour hot soup over noodles.  Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.


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

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I love soup.  It's really that simple.  I don't remember ever meeting a soup I didn't like.  I have tasted some soups that I didn't LOVE, but for the most part... it's pretty hard to mess up soup.  I wanted my first recipe to share to be one of my very favorites and just the name of it makes my mouth water.  Creamy chicken and wild rice soup.  Mm.

I'll start by saying that one of the reasons I love this soup is that I also love the perfect blending of carrots, onion and celery.  It's a great base for many dishes but it really creates that first layer of flavor in this soup.

When I first found this recipe, it was a little different.  It wanted you to throw raw chicken in the chicken broth with the cooked veggies to poach.  I got very sick in high school from food so anytime a recipe says raw, I do whatever I can to make that NOT raw.  Egh.  I have this adorable mini crockpot that a sweet lady from my church home gave me when I went off to college.  I can't tell you have many chicken breasts this little crock has cooked, but she's one of my favorite friends in the kitchen.  I can throw a few breasts or tenderloins in there in the morning with some water and by the afternoon, I can shred the chicken with the tiniest poke of a fork.  Gosh, she's handy.  I've never tried it but I'm sure you could use canned chicken if you like that, but I have also used rotisserie chicken before and that works great.  (I don't usually leave the grocery store without a rotisserie chicken!)

Anyway, here it is!  I love to serve this with cornbread (we love to add jalapenos and cheese to ours!) , crackers or bread for dipping.  This is also super good leftover or even works well to freeze.  Enjoy!

(I am also not going to claim to be a photographer...  My kitchen has terrible lighting so hopefully I will be thinking next time I cook this and take better pictures.)

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

2 T butter
2 T olive oil
1 c. onion, diced
4 ribs of celery, chopped
4 large carrots, cubed
6 c. chicken broth
3/4 lb chicken breast, cooked
6 oz box Uncle Ben's Long Grain Wild Rice, Original
1 1/2 c. half and half
1/3 c. flour
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat oil and butter.  Stir in onion, celery and carrots on med heat for 10 mins until soft.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour in broth, chicken, and rice with seasoning packet.  Cover and let simmer for 20 mins to cook rice, stirring occasionally.  In small bowl, whisk half and half with flour until smooth.  Pour into soup and reduce to low heat.  Cook until rice is soft and soup is lightly thickened.  Serve with crackers, cornbread or sourdough bread for dipping.