Warming lasagna soup with red wine inspired by the classic Italian kitchen. Packed with extra veggies for extra flavour and vitamins with a luxury touch of red wine, homemade vegetable stock and quark as a lighter option for the cheese.
This soup does take a little longer to make because it’s made with red wine that you reduce and all the vegetables need a little prep – but it’s totally worth it! I promise.
How to make the perfect lasagna
As always to make the perfect base, start with frying the onions, celery, carrots and garlic in some oil. Then add the mince and cook thoroughly until ALL the liquid has dissolved.
Then pour the red wine and vegetable stock over the mixture until just covered and let it simmer until it has reduced.
For further instructions read these tips for cooking any dish with mince.
Have you ever wondered why dishes like chilli con Carne or bolognese taste so good at a restaurant but when trying to make these simple courses at home you end up with a somewhat bland, flavourless result?
Follow these tips and I promise you, the difference is remarkable.
When cooking mince it’s important that you cook until all the liquid has reduced. Otherwise, you’re basically boiling the meat. So to get that rich Italian restaurant feel you need to take your time. The longer you let it cook, the richer the taste. Makes sense, right?
Basic vegetable base when making lasagna, spaghetti bolognese and chilli con carne is:
Celery
Carrots
Onion
Chilli and/or garlic.
Chop them all as finely as possible and let it cook with the mince after the liquid has reduced. I promise you, these little tips make all the difference.
I wrote these tips down for my Chilli con Carne which has been named the best chilli con Carne by quite a few 😉
Cooking with red wine
For this recipe, I used a smooth Valpolicella because that’s what I had. But you can use any wine you’d like as long as you’d drink it yourself. Meaning please avoid the “cooking wine” from the supermarkets. Ideally, use a wine you’d pair with what you’re cooking.
According to Fine Cooking, the best red wines for cooking are those with moderate tannins: Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese (the main grape in Chianti), and lighter-style Cabernets. Heat won’t improve the undesirable qualities of bad wine: it will accentuate them. Conversely, heat kills the subtle nuances in a complex wine, so save the really good stuff for drinking. In general, go for young wines with lively fruit notes for the best flavour in the pot or pan.
Dry or fruity wine
Delicious for drinking with food, dry red wines (dry meaning they have less sugar) are also useful in cooking. As with white wines, the acidity in red wine will punch up other flavours in the dish, provided there’s not too much tannin (that bitter flavour that makes your mouth pucker) or oak (that toasty vanilla flavour from ageing in oak barrels) to overshadow the food.
Lasagna Soup
This simple recipe may look a little daunting due to the long list of ingredients but a lot of it is pantry staples you probably already have, so don’t miss out on this recipe thinking it’s too much.
Lasagna Soup
Warming lasagna soup with red wine inspired by the classic Italian kitchen. Packed with extra veggies for extra flavour and vitamins with a luxury touch of red wine, homemade vegetable stock and quark as a lighter option for the cheese.
- Olive oil
- Water
- 1 onion cut into Brunoise (Fine Dice)
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 carrots cut into Brunoise (Fine Dice)
- 1 stick celery cut into Brunoise (Fine Dice)
- 1 green/red chilli cut into thin slices
- 1 pack ground lean beef mince (5-7%) (Preferably organic)
- 1 pack Datterini tomatoes (or other sweet tomatoes)
- 1 bell pepper (red)
- 1 courgette cut into mirepoix (large dice)
- 1 tin canned tomatoes
- 200 ml red wine (*see notes on which wine to choose in the post)
- 500 ml vegetable stock (I had a bag of homemade stock in the freezer, but two cubes of vegetable stock and boiling water will do just fine as well.)
- 1 pack Mushrooms, organic
- 10 pcs lasagna sheets
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 pot quark
- Salt + pepper
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- Fresh or dries herbs like oregano, thyme, basil
- 3 bay leaves
- Fresh parsley for garnish
Start by prepping all the vegetables. Then cook the brunoise onions, chilli, garlic, bar leaves, carrot and celery in a little olive oil.
Add the mince and let it simmer until ALL the liquid has dissolved. You need to brown it not cook it 🙂 See notes in post for further instructions.
Cover the mince with the red wine and half the stock or maybe a little less. You want to JUST cover the mince. Let it simmer at slow heat until it has reduced. Add the tinned tomatoes, the rest of the stock, tomato paste, salt, pepper, spices and herbs, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper and courgette.
Let it simmer for 30+ minutes. The longer the creamier.
Ina large saucepan, bring plenty of water to the boil. Then add olive oil, salt and the lasagna sheets.
Cook until al dente (10-12 minutes)
You can see and feel when they're done. You want them to be SLIGHTLY undercooked as they'll absorb liquid from the soup.
Once done, remove from heat and rinse under cold water.
Cut into 3 cm wide ribbons and add to the soup.
Taste to flavour with salt/pepper/tomato paste/sugar and serve in bowls you've preheated with hot water, generous amounts of quark and fresh herbs.