Zuppa Toscana soup has always been and always will be my go-to starter at Olive Garden. Many times I’ve thought of making that my entire meal. You know, order the unlimited soup and salad and just have the soup. But then again, I do love the pasta as well.
On to the topic at hand. I’m the kind of person who hates to have to scroll forever to actually get to the recipe, so let’s jump right into Zuppa Toscana. I know you came looking for the Zuppa Toscana soup recipe, so I’ll save the chit-chat for afterward.
Ingredients for Zuppa Toscana Soup
- 1 pound spicy Breakfast sausage – I use Jimmy Dean’s Hot
- 4 tablespoons of butter – stick works great and is premeasured
- ½ white onion – diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic – 2 or 3 cloves finely cut and diced
- 2 cups of chicken broth
- 2 cup of water
- 4-5 yellow or 7-8 new potatoes – cut into small pieces
- 3 teaspoons salt – more or less to suit your taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper – again, suit your taste
- 1 and ½ cups heavy cream
- 4 cups chopped kale
- Breadsticks, chopped bacon or bacon bits, and grated parmesan cheese for topping – optional
Instructions for Zuppa Toscana
- In a large pot, cook the sausage for 5-6 minutes or until browned. Remove the sausage and drain the grease in a strainer. This is IMPORTANT, use HOT water, not cold so it doesn’t cause plumbing problems. Rinse off the sausage to get as much grease off as you can. Otherwise, It makes a mess. Rinse or wipe out any remaining grease in the pot.
- Important, don’t skimp on the potatoes. Whichever you use, make sure the cut-up portion is close to the size of the sausage portion.
- In the same pot, return to the heat and let it warm back up. Add the butter and let it melt, then add the onions. Saute those onions over medium-high heat until translucent. Add the garlic and saute for another minute or until fragrant.
- Add the chicken broth, water, potatoes, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and boil until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the kale, and then heavy cream. Add the sausage last. Taste and add salt and pepper to suit your taste. Serve garnished with grated parmesan, bacon, or breadsticks if desired.
Do We Peel The Potatoes?
Indeed this is a question that simply suits your preference. I used new potatoes because HEB didn’t have yellow potatoes in stock. With the delicate skin on either of those potatoes, it’s questionable if they really need to be peeled.
I’m more accustomed to cooking with the much larger russet potatoes with a much thicker and browner skin. Many restaurants and even fast food places will cook those as french fries with the skin on. With that thicker skin, I’m not a fan of that. In my opinion, the only way to get away with that is potato wedges that are baked and covered in cheese and bacon till the skin is crispy.
On a last potato note, if the larger potato was all I had on hand, I would use it in a heartbeat for this recipe. I wouldn’t actually buy those specifically for this, but I’m quite sure they would work great as well. If you choose new potatoes, DO NOT get canned. ALWAYS use fresh potatoes from the produce section.
In Conclusion and onto the Chit-Chat
I hope your Zuppa Tuscana soup turns out as great as mine did. This is my altered recipe to actually fit in a 5-quart pot. The original was 10 cups of liquid and didn’t drain the grease off the sausage. Not draining that grease is probably not a healthy choice and just makes a mess of things. I had to skim it off the top as it cooled.
Is Zuppa Toscana Worth the Price of the Ingredients?
Granted, the ingredient list does get a little pricey for this recipe. Believe it or not, the heavy cream was the most expensive thing on the list at Walmart where I live. Add the potatoes, broth, and sausage and this actually gets up there in price. With that said, I did have the butter, salt, and pepper at home and it came out to over $30 for me.
So, is that worth the price to make? Well, I don’t just look at the initial price. I start with the amount of food this recipe will actually make and how many meals this will provide. As said before, this is a recipe I can make a meal of, not just a starter. When you divide the numbers of meals this creates by the cost, it really is not bad at all. For instance, it looks like this will provide 8-10 meals (I just cooked it tonight and have lots left). If I get 10, that’s only $3 a meal. Try buying a decent frozen dinner for that price.
On to Health
As frozen dinners were just mentioned, what are you actually ingesting if you take that option? Granted, with the Italian sausage in Zuppa Toscana it’s not the healthiest choice you can make. But between the two, it is SO much better than a frozen dinner full of processed foods and preservatives. On top of that, it will taste 100% better. Fresh foods, even not so great in fat content, will ALWAYS be healthier than processed ANYTHING!
These days, I’m all about doing things as home-made as I can get it. Granted, I’m not growing the crops or raising the animals, but use the freshest produce I can buy. I don’t even like using box anything anymore. Take brownies for example, I will not make them from a box. Yes, this is another expensive one to get the ingredients in stock. Cocoa and vanilla are expensive, but I don’t even want to know what they use in one of those boxes. Judging from the price, it CAN’T be real and fresh ingredients.
Want More Recipes?
Did you love the Zuppa Toscana soup and want to see what other recipes I have? I certainly hope so! First I was a bachelor and had to cook for myself. I’ve been married for 21 years and love my wife to death, but she is not a very good cook. Therefore, I’m the chef in the house. By the way, those brownies mentioned above are usually gone the same day I make them. Seriously, I’m lucky to even get one for myself!
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