Danny Freeman's Ultimate Tips On Making That Viral Lasagna Soup - Exclusive

There's no shortage of viral recipes out there — but lasagna soup certainly makes its way onto the viral MVP list. Danny Freeman, known as Danny Loves Pasta on TikTok, posted the recipe earlier this year and immediately made headlines. "Lasagna soup has been around for a long time," the content creator told Tasting Table in an exclusive interview. "The earliest I could find — because I was doing some research on it — was some restaurant that had it in the early '90s."

Despite the recipe not being entirely new to the food scene, TikTok took it and ran with it right away, with the original video garnering over 20 million views. Lasagna soup —also referred to as deconstructed lasagna — is composed of broth, classic lasagna ingredients (noodles, ricotta cheese, ground beef, tomato sauce, etc.), and various seasonings. However, Freeman described his version as leaning more toward a "stew" due to his substitution of mozzarella cheese. "I did not put any ricotta in, I put mozzarella, which gives it this nice stretchiness."

According to the new cookbook author of "Danny Loves Pasta," you can (and should!) cater the lasagna soup recipe to your liking. Danny Freeman told Tasting Table, "I make mine with brown beef and Italian sausage, but you could make it vegetarian and use something else." With this being a one-pot recipe, the social media star finds it fairly easy to customize it based on eating preferences. You can cook up the meat and incorporate the tomato sauce in a few simple steps.

Then, pour in your broth (chicken or vegetable) and throw in some broken-up lasagna noodles. According to Freeman, the noodles will soak up the flavor of the broth, leaving you with a cheesy, gooey, and quick dinner. He added, "You don't have to watch it super closely; you just let it go. If you want it to be very soupy, you can always add more broth, but I don't add a ton." You may have to experiment around with the ingredient measurements to match the lasagna soup to your preferred flavoring, but it's pretty much a guaranteed people pleaser no matter which way you slice it.

You can order Danny Freeman's cookbook, "Danny Loves Pasta," on Amazon now. Keep up with Danny's most recent videos on Instagram and TikTok.