Lasagna Soup

It's below freezing right now, and I'm not venturing out!  Instead, I'm trying a new soup that sounds really good on a day like this.

I looked at multiple recipes online and ultimately, I decided not to go with any of them and to develop my own, since so many of them had ingredients I wouldn't want in mine... like English peas.  No!  Not for me, so here's what I came up with, and it's so good!

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
1 envelope Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix
1 (32 oz.) jar Classico Tomato and Basil spaghetti sauce (don't throw the jar and lid away!)
1 (14.5 oz.) can fire roasted diced tomatoes

3 cups water (divided use)
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon sugar
8 to10 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
1 (14.5 oz.) can reduced sodium beef broth (optional, depending on how thick you want your soup)
Salt and black pepper
Grated parmesan cheese
Grated mozzarella cheese
Optional:  Ricotta cheese


Directions


Begin by browning the ground beef well, seasoning it with salt, until you have brown bits sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Drain the meat if necessary, and set aside.

Add 1 and 1/2 cups of the water and the beefy onion soup mix to the pan you cooked the meat in over medium high heat and deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom and sides well.  Allow to come to a boil.

 Lower the heat to a simmer and stir in the fire roasted tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.

Add the worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt & pepper, sugar, and stir to mix well.

Bring to a strong simmer and add broken noodles.

  Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of water to the spaghetti sauce jar, put the lid on and shake it, then pour it into the soup, stir in.

Allow to simmer until the noodles are almost tender, stirring frequently, then add the beef back to the pot.  Add the can of beef broth now if you want you soup to be thinner.  You can omit the broth, but I found that after the noodles cooked and absorbed some of the liquids, I needed to add it.

At this point, after tasting the soup, I found that it needed more salt, so I suggest you taste and add salt if necessary.  Continue to simmer until the noodles are cooked to your preference.

Once you serve it up into bowls, put a little dollop of ricotta cheese in the center (optional!) and push it down into the hot soup, then sprinkle with  a little grated parmesan and then mozzarella.

You can add as many broken noodles as you want, just keep in mind they absorb liquid, which will have to be replaced with broth.  I don't recommend using more water than what the recipe calls for because I think it would dilute the flavors too much.  Beef broth would be better.

You can also use any brand or type of spaghetti sauce you like, just make sure it's 32 ounces.  The Classico is what I had on hand, so it's what I used.

Melty, stringy mozzarella!