Zuppa Toscana
Published on January 15, 2024
Quick Summary
If you love Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup, you will love this homemade version. It is made in one-pot and loaded with Italian sausage, bacon, potatoes, garlic, and kale. Creamy, satisfying, and delicious!
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Pin ItThe Olive Garden restaurant made Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan soup) extremely popular. It is a creamy soup made with Italian sausage, bacon, tender potatoes, garlic, and kale. It is rich, hearty, and flavorful. No wonder it is so popular.
Well, good news, you don’t have to go to the Olive Garden to enjoy this soup. You can make it at home, from scratch! And I think our homemade version is even BETTER.
All of the ingredients are cooked in ONE pot, one pot meals really are the best! The soup has a rich and creamy broth and is loaded with chunks of sausage, bacon, and potatoes. The kale adds a nice touch of green and I like to add Parmesan cheese at the end for an extra boost of flavor.
Enjoy the soup for lunch or an easy weeknight dinner. Serve with crusty bread and a simple salad. Cozy, comforting, and always a crowd-pleaser!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Bacon– for best results, use thick cut bacon. It adds a smoky, salty flavor to to the soup.
- Italian sausage– we use mild ground Italian sausage. If you want a spicy soup, you can use hot Italian sausage.
- Onion– diced.
- Garlic– minced.
- Chicken broth– use your favorite brand. Vegetable broth will also work.
- Russet potatoes– peeled and chopped into 1/4″ thick pieces. You will need about 3 cups. Red potatoes will also work.
- Crushed red pepper flakes– a dash for a little heat.
- Heavy cream– to make the soup rich and creamy. Half and half will work too.
- Kale– chop up the kale and remove the ribs. Spinach will also work.
- Parmesan cheese– for extra flavor!
How to Make Zuppa Toscana
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook the bacon pieces over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until crispy. Stir occasionally so the bacon doesn’t stick or burn. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the Italian sausage to the pot and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the onion to the pot and cook until translucent and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the broth, potatoes, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and reduce to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Add the cooked bacon and sausage to the pot.
- Stir in the heavy cream, kale, and Parmesan cheese. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if necessary.
Serving Suggestions
This soup is very filling and can be a complete meal on it’s own, but if you want to add a few sides, here are some ideas.
- Simple Arugula Salad
- Easy Green Salad
- Simple Kale Salad
- Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
- Garlic Bread
- Bruschetta
How to Store & Freeze
- To store leftover soup, place the cooled soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stove top.
- To freeze the soup, make the soup according to the recipe, but under cook the potatoes a little and don’t add the cream. Let the soup cool completely and place in a freezer container. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. Place in a pot and heat over medium low on the stove. Add the cream to the soup and stir.
- If you have leftover soup that you want to freeze and already added the cream, you can still freeze it, but the cream might separate a little bit after thawing and the potatoes might be a little mushy.
More Soup Recipes
- White Bean Soup
- Potato Soup
- Minestrone Soup
- Potato Leek Soup
- Homemade Vegetable Soup
- Chickpea Soup
- Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup
Find more SOUP RECIPES HERE!
Zuppa Toscana
Ingredients
- 4 strips bacon chopped
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic minced
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1/4″ thick pieces (about 3 cups)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Dash of crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups chopped kale, ribs removed
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, cook the bacon pieces over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until crispy. Stir occasionally so the bacon doesn’t stick or burn. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the Italian sausage to the pot and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the onion to the pot and cook until translucent and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the broth, potatoes, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil and reduce to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.
- Add the cooked bacon and sausage to the pot. Stir in the heavy cream, kale, and Parmesan cheese. Let simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and add additional salt and pepper, if necessary.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve warm.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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If you’d like to try a REAL tuscan soup (and it’s vegetable one, no sausage, they don’t do that in tuscany. Trust me, I lived there for 5 loooong years) google ribollita. Absolutely fabulous!
This looks delicious! Do you think spinach would be a good substitute for the kale?
It’s kind of funny seeing the title written the way it is because two words are repeated.
“Zuppa Toscana Soup”:
‘Zuppa Toscana’ is Italian for “Tuscany Soup” and then you added on the word “Soup” so it reads “Tuscany Soup Soup.” It would have been better if you just left it at “Zuppa Toscana.”
Really? Its a common mistake. Fantastic recipe, who cares if there is a little typo. Go eat a cookie. 🙂
Hi Lori,
I’m so glad you are fluent in Italian otherwise you wouldn’t notice the repeated word in the recipe. Just a suggestion, for the ones (like me) that doesn’t speak Italian it’s nice to understand this is a soup also its helpful when searching recipes.
Emily,
This soup is excellent! adding “soup” to the title didn’t get any flavor away from the recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
I just made a big pot of this soup! It came out excellent… my husband likes it even more than I do. We like to shake a ton of pepper on top before eating it and that makes this soup taste even better.
Just made your soup, it was fantastic! thank you for the recipe =) just a warning to others – stay away from rainbow chard as a substitute for the kale… we ended up with strawberry milk-colored soup!
Yesterday was our first chilly day in Texas this fall. Soup sounded like the perfect Sunday night dinner. I made this last night…it was soooooo good and flavorful!! Even my kids gobbled it up! Plenty for leftovers tonight! Surely, one of our favorites!! Mmmm, if you are a soupie like me, you MUST try this recipe. Definitely restaurant quality!
I made this for dinner last night and I must say it got a big thumbs up from everyone. I used Italian chicken sausage (I had some in the freezer). It was my first time cooking with kale and it was very easy to prepare and use. I will be looking from some other recipes with kale. We also had the Mexican rice bowls this week. Thanks for two great recipes.
You are very welcome!
Made this for dinner tonight, and it tastes so good. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I wonder how the kale would keep in a soup like this. Would I need to keep it separate until I am ready to reheat it or just leave it in there. Just seems like it would eventually get soggy like spinach does.
I love this soup I omit the chicken and use beef base and sprinkle pepper bacon crumle on top with a pich of shredded parmasesan
This has become my favorite soup recipe!!!! Thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve made your version several times – it’s soooo much better than even the original. I also Love that I can make it spicier or add spinach instead of kale if that’s what I have…. And it’s even better the next day or two!!
How is this the same with no potatoes? Seems very different.
I made this soup before I ever had it at Olive Garden. Then I went to Olive Garden and had it there. I have to say that this version is so much better!
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research on this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I’m very glad to see such fantastic info being shared freely out there.
Loved this recipe so much! It has been a family favorite for a few years now!!! I like to add extra kale because it tastes so dang good! 1,000,000 stars from me!!!
How many serving is this?
I made this almost exactly by the directions, which is unusual for me, and it turned out incredible. I wasn’t sure what size “large russet potatoes” were, because some potatoes today are gigantic, so I used 5 of the larger potatoes out of a bag of Russets. I also used chicken broth for all 10 cups of liquid. A little salt and cracked black pepper, and we had a hit! I will definitely keep this and make it again!
Thank you
I don’t remember if I ever left a comment back in 2012 when I found your recipe on Pinterest, but I am now. I have been making this soup off and on over the last decade. When I was younger and married my ex in laws always took us here, that was my order, this soup and salad. I haven’t been in over a decade as I have food allergies and have been cooking at home since I discovered them. This soup is perfect and satisfies my craving for it. My daughter asks for soup every winter. I’m making it now and wanted to make sure I rated it. Thanks again. Love it.
I am so glad you love the soup!! I should probably update the post:)
Thank you for another fantastic article. Where else could anybody get that kind of info in such a perfect way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such info.
I’m still learning from you, but I’m trying to reach my goals. I definitely liked reading everything that is written on your website.Keep the stories coming. I liked it!
Great soup! Never had the one at Olive Garden but really enjoyed this one. Easy and flavorful. I had ground pork so I seasoned with Italian seasoning and sage. Used spinach instead of kale. Definitely will make again.
It’s much better than Olive Garden’s..ha! Glad you loved it.
Wonderful hearty soup! We had a snow week and it was the perfect thing to have after being outside in the cold.
I couldn’t get kale last week so I used savoy cabbage which was a good substitute, in case anyone was wondering.
Cabbage is a great addition! Glad you loved it!
This was a delicious soup, but a little salty for me. I’m glad I tasted the broth before adding the salt listed in the ingredients. I used chicken Italian sausage, and I think that, with the bacon and cheese, had enough salt. I’ll make it again, modifying the broth as well (using low sodium) and adding a little more vegetables.
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This was delicious! I’m an avid follower of your blog and I have yet to be disappointed by a recipe. You sent this recipe out this weekend in your meal plan round up and I’ve been wanting to try it after seeing it on here before also. I was nervous my husband wouldn’t like it, but he wants to have it again! He did question why there were green things in his food, but tried it anyway. We both agreed we thought it could use more kale next time. We’ll definitely make again.
This makes me so happy! Yes, you can for sure add more kale. I am glad he approved:)
Absolutely delicious! I’ve used other Zuppa Tuscana recipes previously and this was WAY better. So hearty, a meal in a bowl and my husband declared it one of the best meals he’s ever had.
We have a ton of veggies right now, so I subbed one of the potatoes for a sweet potato and added a carrot and celery rib. Also used half and half since I didn’t have heavy cream. Absolutely divine and will make again and again.
I am thrilled you love our recipe!
Delicious and so easy to make.
Always a favorite!
I just made this AGAIN for the third time last night. I find myself craving this recipe and also sharing it with my friends because it’s that good. This time I used frozen chopped kale and it actually worked wonderfully! It wasn’t as pretty as the bigger fresh kale leaves, but it was just as good. I’m also technically not supposed to have dairy, but I do anyways, so I decided to half the heavy cream and it was still just as good and we couldn’t tell a difference. I’m excited for leftovers tonight because it just gets better as it sits in the fridge.
I am so glad you love this one!