Copycat Zuppa Toscana soup recipe – as good as Olive Garden’s with spicy Italian sausage, bacon, cream, and kale. Pair with crusty bread and it’s a hearty meal!
Zuppa Toscana and Me
We don’t eat out very often. When we do, we usually support local restaurants. We have our favorites and sometimes it is nice to let someone else do the cooking:) I don’t like chain restaurants or fast food-sometimes I wonder if they even serve real food:) So when we were eating at our friends house the other night and they told us we were having the “Olive Garden’s soup”, I had no clue what they were talking about! 🙂 Sure, I have been to the Olive Garden, but it has been many, many years.
Our friend created a copycat recipe of the Olive Garden’s “famous” Zuppa Tuscana soup. I didn’t try it because of the meat, but Josh loved it. It was right up his alley-spicy Italian sausage, bacon, cream, and kale. At least he got his greens in:) He ended up having two bowls-I gave him my share…ha! And don’t worry, our friends made sure I had a veggie option-they are too nice:)
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana at Home
Josh was craving the soup the other night-I was scared he was going to drag me to the Olive Garden, but instead he wanted to make it. Whew! 🙂 Josh bought all of the ingredients and made a big pot of Zuppa Tuscana at home. He was pleased with his soup-he said it really hit the spot!
Josh highly recommends eating Zuppa Toscana with good, crusty bread. He likes to dunk the bread in the soup. He loves the robust flavors and big meat chunks.
If you love the Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup, try making it at home. I am sure it’s even better than the real deal!
*And if you love the Olive Garden-I am glad, it is just not my “cup of tea.” 🙂 No hard feelings..ha!
Zuppa Toscana Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 1 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 large white onion diced
- 4 slices bacon chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups Water
- 1 cup Heavy cream
- 3 large Russet potatoes peeled and chopped
- 3 cups Kale washed and roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- 1. In a medium skillet, saute the Italian sausage with the red pepper flakes. Drain excess fat, set aside.
- 2. In a large soup pot, saute the bacon. When the bacon is half way cooked, add the onions and garlic. Saute until the onions are tender-about 5 minutes.
- 3. Add the chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil.
- 4. Add the potatoes and cook until soft, about 30 minutes.
- 5. Add in the heavy cream and sausage and cook until the soup is heated.
- 6. Stir in the chopped kale. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
Have you tried this recipe?
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If you like this soup, you might also like:
Tortellini Vegetable Soup from Two Peas and Their Pod
Lentil Stew with Sausage from Simply Recipes
Italian Saussage and Bean Soup with Chard from Kalyn’s Kitchen
Wild Rice, Mushroom, and Sausage Soup from Recipe Girl
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. 🙂
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.