Lasagna Soup

This was AMAZING!  Just soooo delicious, and loved by each member of my family, even the one who doesn't like tomatoes.  I saw it floating around facebook and decided to give it a try.  It was a hit!

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds Italian sausage
one large onion, chopped
2T tomato paste
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
2-3 cans diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken broth
1 pound rotini noodles

8 oz ricotta cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
small amount of mozzarella cheese (just to sprinkle on top of each serving)
fresh basil
pepper

How to Make:

Brown the sausage in the bottom of a stock pot.
Add the chopped onion, tomato paste, bay leaves, and garlic.  Let cook for a few minutes til onion is slightly softened.

Add the diced tomatoes and chicken broth.  Let simmer for 30 minutes.
Pour in the rotini noodles and bring to boil.  Let boil for 8-10 minutes til noodles are cooked.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the ricotta and parmesan cheeses with a bit of pepper.

To serve:  spoon soup into a bowl.  Top with a spoonful of the ricotta/parmesan cheese mixture, then sprinkle some mozzarella cheese over all, and place bits of fresh basil on the very top.  Voila!

This was scrumptious.  My family (currently 7) scraped the stock pot clean, so when I make this again I will double the recipe.  Definitely a winner!

Meatball Sandwich Casserole

You will need:

1 bag of frozen meatballs (or make your own from scratch)
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup Italian blend cheese, shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 loaf of fresh Italian bread, sliced

To prepare:

Preheat oven to 400. Place entire bag of meatballs in pot with sauce (I also add garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper to taste) and cook over medium heat until warmed completely through, about 10 minutes. Stir as needed to keep meatballs from sticking to pot.  When we made these for New Year's Eve I gave this job to my very capable nephew!

Once heated through remove from heat. Place meatballs in the center of a 9x13 baking dish, layer mozzarella and Italian blend cheeses over meatballs topping off with the Parmesan. Take the slices of Italian bread and line the pan all the way around with them so that they are kind of keeping the meatballs toward the center of the pan. The bread slices will be standing up in the pan as shown below. You have creative freedom here with the bread...you can lightly butter and garlic the bread prior to placing it in the pan if you prefer or even brush lightly with olive oil and garlic (this is what I do). 

Place in oven and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. I forgot to take an "after" picture, but here it was in the oven, baking. 

Soooo good!  Assembly is so fast and easy, this is *almost* a meal in 30 minutes entry.

Loved by all.  I will definitely make again!