Recipe: A Wintry (And Cheesy) Lasagne Soup You Can Make Entirely In The Slow Cooker

Chef, author, and slow-cooker royalty is back at it again, this time hitting you right in the feels with a dish that’ll keep you red hot throughout the entirety of winter. It’s the perfect recipe if you’re looking to dip your toes into the world of slow cooking—and if you’re looking to dip copious amounts of bread into your soup—so, read on and leave it on for at least six hours, and what will come out the other end is a glorious lasagne soup.

“It has a place at the table on any old Wednesday night as much as it does on the nights you have friends over for dinner. It is a feat of comfort and culinary genius all in one. Looking at those lasagne sheets bobbing happily in the soupy, cheesy sauce is a feast for the eyes as well as the belly.”

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped basil leaves
• 500g (1 lb 2 oz) minced (ground) beef
• 185ml (6 fl oz/¾ cup) full-cream (whole) milk
• 2 × 400g (14 oz) tins chopped tomatoes
• 500ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste (concentrated purée)
• 100g (31/2 oz/1 cup) grated parmesan
• 200g (7 oz) fresh lasagne sheets, roughly torn
• 1 ball buffalo mozzarella, roughly torn

To serve

• basil leaves

Method

1. Set the slow cooker to the sauté function and allow to warm up. 
2. Add the oil and, once hot, add the onion. Cook for 1–2 minutes, then add the garlic, celery and carrot. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent them catching. 
3. Add the herbs and cook for another 30 seconds before adding the beef. Cook until lightly browned, then season with salt and pepper.
4. Stir in the milk and cook for another 5 minutes, or until it looks like the milk has been absorbed into the meat and none of the meat is clumping together. 
5. Add the tomatoes, stock and tomato paste, then close the lid and cook on low for 6–8 hours. Lift the lid and add half of the parmesan to season. 
6. Once melted into the sauce, gently push in the lasagne sheets. Close the lid and cook for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat. 
7. Add the mozzarella and give it a minute to melt into the sauce. Gently spoon into serving bowls. Season again with the remaining parmesan, salt and pepper and add the fresh basil leaves just before serving.

Chef Katrina Meynink is a cookbook author—most recently Slow Victories—and food columnist who lives and breathes all things food. She is particularly fond of butter, Persian fairy floss, all salads and the odd bit of crisp bacon. 

This is an edited extract from Slow Victories by Katrina Meynink published by Hardie Grant Books $35.00 and is available where all good books are sold.

Photographer: © Katrina Meynink, Kait Barker