Lasagna Soup (Crockpot)
Lasagna is a Sunday project. Lasagna SOUP is a “dump everything in the crockpot and watch Netflix” situation. Same flavours, fraction of the effort, and somehow the compliments are disproportionate to the amount of work involved. People act like you’ve been cooking all day. You haven’t. The crockpot has. But you accept the praise because you’ve earned it in other ways.
Ingredients
For the Crockpot (Morning)
- 1 pound ground beef 450g; or half beef, half Italian sausage
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can crushed tomatoes 28oz / 800g
- 1 can diced tomatoes 14oz / 400g
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups beef or chicken broth 1L
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- Salt and pepper
For the End (Last 30 Minutes)
- 8 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces don’t bother being neat. Snap them roughly.
- 1 cup ricotta cheese 250g
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella 100g
- ½ cup grated parmesan 45g
- Fresh basil
Method
Brown the Meat (10 Minutes, Morning)
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In a large skillet, cook the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned — about 6-7 minutes. Add the onion and garlic in the last 2 minutes. Drain excess fat if there’s a lot. Transfer to the crockpot.
Load the Crockpot
-
Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper to the crockpot. Stir to combine. Set on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours. Walk away. That’s it for the next several hours.
Add the Pasta (Last 30 Minutes)
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About 30 minutes before serving, break the lasagna noodles into rough pieces and stir them into the soup. They don’t need to be neat — mismatched sizes are part of the charm. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20-30 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Taste a noodle to check. Nobody likes mushy pasta — stop as soon as they’re tender but still have a slight bite.
Finish with Cheese
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Turn off the crockpot. Stir in the parmesan. Ladle into bowls. Top each bowl with a big dollop of ricotta and a handful of shredded mozzarella. The heat of the soup will slightly melt the mozzarella into stretchy strings. Tear fresh basil over the top. Hand everyone a piece of bread and watch it disappear.
Notes
Store without the pasta if possible — the noodles absorb liquid overnight and get mushy. If you have leftovers with pasta already in, add a splash of broth when reheating. The soup keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge and freezes well for up to 3 months (again, without pasta). This makes great meal prep — freeze portions without pasta and cook fresh noodles when you reheat.
Crockpot Lasagna Soup — All the Layers, None of the Assembly
Lasagna is a Sunday project. Lasagna SOUP is a “dump everything in the crockpot and watch Netflix” situation. Same flavours, fraction of the effort, and somehow the compliments are disproportionate to the amount of work involved. People act like you’ve been cooking all day. You haven’t. The crockpot has. But you accept the praise because you’ve earned it in other ways.
I’ll be honest — I was sceptical about lasagna soup. It sounded like a recipe someone invented because they were too lazy to layer noodles. And honestly? That’s exactly what it is. But sometimes laziness breeds genius. This soup has everything that makes lasagna great — meaty tomato sauce, broken pasta, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan — in a format that requires zero assembly, zero layering, and zero waiting for it to set before you can eat it. My four kids inhale it. My husband eats it with rye bread (the Polish way) and declares it “better than regular lasagna,” which is incorrect but I appreciate the sentiment.
My Polish twist: I sometimes swap the ground beef for a combination of ground pork and kielbasa. The smokiness of the kielbasa adds a depth that regular lasagna never has. It’s not traditional Italian. It’s not traditional Polish. It’s Polish Mom, and that means it’s both.
Why the Crockpot Version
Because your house smells incredible for 6-8 hours and you do approximately nothing to earn that. The crockpot does the slow simmering that develops deep, rich tomato flavour — the kind that usually requires standing at the stove stirring for an hour. You brown the meat in the morning, dump everything in, go live your life, and come back to a pot of soup that tastes like a day-long Italian project.
The trick is adding the pasta and cheeses at the end. If you dump broken lasagna noodles into the crockpot at 8am, by 5pm you’ll have tomato-flavoured mush. The noodles need to go in during the last 20-30 minutes, and the ricotta and mozzarella get stirred in right at the end. This is the only thing that requires timing, and it takes 2 minutes.
Ingredients
For the Crockpot (Morning)
- • 1 pound (450g) ground beef — or half beef, half Italian sausage
- • 1 large onion, diced
- • 4 cloves garlic, minced
- • 1 can (28oz / 800g) crushed tomatoes
- • 1 can (14oz / 400g) diced tomatoes
- • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- • 4 cups (1L) beef or chicken broth
- • 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- • 1 teaspoon sugar
- • Salt and pepper
For the End (Last 30 Minutes)
- • 8 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces — don’t bother being neat. Snap them roughly.
- • 1 cup (250g) ricotta cheese
- • 1 cup (100g) shredded mozzarella
- • ½ cup (45g) grated parmesan
- • Fresh basil
How to Make It
Brown the Meat (10 Minutes, Morning)
In a large skillet, cook the ground beef over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned — about 6-7 minutes. Add the onion and garlic in the last 2 minutes. Drain excess fat if there’s a lot. Transfer to the crockpot.
Load the Crockpot
Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper to the crockpot. Stir to combine. Set on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH for 3-4 hours. Walk away. That’s it for the next several hours.
Add the Pasta (Last 30 Minutes)
About 30 minutes before serving, break the lasagna noodles into rough pieces and stir them into the soup. They don’t need to be neat — mismatched sizes are part of the charm. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20-30 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Taste a noodle to check. Nobody likes mushy pasta — stop as soon as they’re tender but still have a slight bite.
Finish with Cheese
Turn off the crockpot. Stir in the parmesan. Ladle into bowls. Top each bowl with a big dollop of ricotta and a handful of shredded mozzarella. The heat of the soup will slightly melt the mozzarella into stretchy strings. Tear fresh basil over the top. Hand everyone a piece of bread and watch it disappear.
Tips
💡 Pro Tips
✓ Don’t add pasta early. This is the #1 mistake. Lasagna noodles in a crockpot for 8 hours will dissolve into the soup and turn the whole thing into a thick, gluey paste. Last 30 minutes only.
✓ Break the noodles by hand. Don’t use a knife — just snap them roughly into irregular pieces. The ragged edges catch sauce and cheese better than clean-cut pieces. Plus it’s satisfying.
✓ Dollop the ricotta, don’t stir it in. Ricotta should melt into each bowl individually, creating creamy swirls. If you stir it into the whole pot, it disperses and you lose those beautiful pockets of cream.
✓ Use good parmesan. The parmesan gets stirred into the hot soup and adds a salty, umami richness. The pre-grated stuff works but fresh-grated from a block is noticeably better.
Variations
• Polish twist — with kielbasa: Replace half the ground beef with diced kielbasa. The smokiness is incredible in this soup. My husband’s favourite version.
• Vegetarian: Skip the meat entirely and add diced zucchini, mushrooms, and a can of white beans. Use vegetable broth. Still hearty, still cheesy, still delicious.
• With spinach: Stir in a few handfuls of baby spinach when you add the pasta. It wilts into the soup and adds colour and iron.
• Stovetop version: If you don’t have a crockpot, brown the meat in a large pot, add everything except pasta and cheese, and simmer on low for 45 minutes. Add pasta, cook 10 more minutes. Same result, different timeline.
How to Store
Store without the pasta if possible — the noodles absorb liquid overnight and get mushy. If you have leftovers with pasta already in, add a splash of broth when reheating. The soup keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge and freezes well for up to 3 months (again, without pasta). This makes great meal prep — freeze portions without pasta and cook fresh noodles when you reheat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use regular pasta instead of lasagna noodles?
Yes — penne, rigatoni, or broken spaghetti all work. The lasagna noodles are fun because they make it feel like actual lasagna, but any pasta shape will taste the same. Just adjust the cooking time to whatever the package says.
Can I use no-boil lasagna noodles?
Yes, and they actually work great in the crockpot because they’re thinner and cook faster. Break them into pieces and add them in the last 20 minutes instead of 30.
Why is there sugar in the recipe?
The same reason zupa pomidorowa has sugar — canned tomatoes can be acidic, and a small amount of sugar balances that acidity. You won’t taste sweetness. You’ll taste a smoother, rounder tomato flavour. It’s a tiny addition that makes a real difference.
The “too tired for real lasagna” origin story
Real talk: I love lasagna. I make it from scratch with homemade meat sauce and béchamel and the whole production. But that’s a 2-hour project, and some weeks the energy just isn’t there. One Sunday I was staring at lasagna ingredients on the counter and my body physically rejected the idea of layering noodles. So I put everything in the crockpot instead. My oldest walked into the kitchen at 5pm, took one smell, and said “lasagna?” I said “close enough.” He ate three bowls. Close enough was good enough. It’s been our weeknight lasagna solution ever since — all the flavour, none of the architecture.
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