Easy Lasagna Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground or with casing removed, sweet or hot sausage, I used sweet
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 green pepper, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (24 ounces), I used Barilla, it was on sale
• 1 carton of beef broth, 32 ounces, I used low fat and low sodium
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ – 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes, this doesn’t make the soup spicy, it brings out the flavor
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 3 basil leaves, snipped with shears into small shreds
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
• Garnish:
• 4 ounces ricotta cheese
• ¼ Parmesan cheese (the dry powdered stuff you use on spaghetti)
• Dash of salt
• ⅛ teaspoon of fine black pepper
• Mozzarella cheese, grated