Zuppa Toscana Soup Recipe

Anyone else living on soup lately? Winter comes and soup is all I care about. Okay not really just soup. Soup and cookies :). This Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana is a regular in my home.  Now, about this soup. If you haven’t ever tried it at Olive Garden I’ll tell you a little about it about it. It is pure comfort food. The end. 

Okay seriously, even though it doesn’t consist of a lot of ingredients or anything fancy it still has such a delicious flavor it is just good homestyle soup. I mean when you bring bacon and sausage together something good is probably about to happen. I know it’s not the healthiest soup but all things in moderation right? I’d rather just have a smaller serving than not have this soup for dinner at all. 

But who are we kidding when this shows up at the dinner table I’m never just there for a little serving. Gimme two bowls please and a generous slice of crusty bread for dunking. Cold days require comfort food like this sometimes so let’s indulge a little shall we? If you haven’t already tried it, I highly highly recommend adding it to your menu this week. It’s one of my favorites!

Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 lb Itàliàn Sàusàge (càsings removed if necessàry)
• 4 oz bàcon (àbout 4 slices), diced into smàll pieces*
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion (àbout 1 smàll onion)
• 3 (14.5 oz) càns low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups wàter
• 1 1/2 lbs Russet potàtoes, scrubbed ànd rinsed then sliced into hàlves, hàlves diced into 1/6-inch slices
• 1 1/2 tsp grànulàted sugàr
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, slightly crushed**
• Sàlt ànd freshly ground blàck pepper
• 2 cups hàlf ànd hàlf
• 1 1/2 cups pàcked chopped kàle
• Finely shredded Romàno cheese for serving, optionàl

Directions 

1. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat. Crumble sausage into 1-inch pieces and add to saucepan. Cook sausage, stirring occasionally until cooked through. Drain sausage onto a plate or baking dish lined with paper towels, set sausage aside. Add diced bacon to saucepan, return to heat and saute 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add diced onions to bacon in saucepan and saute mixture until bacon is cooked through and onions are translucent, about 3 - 5 minutes longer.
2. Add chicken broth, water, sliced potatoes, sugar, fennel seeds, salt and pepper. Bring soup just to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and stir in cooked sausage. Cover saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are nearly tender, about 10 - 15 minutes. Add in kale then simmer until potatoes are soft and kale is tender, about 5 - 10 minutes longer. Stir in half and half and warm through. Use a spoon or ladle to remove excess fat from top of soup if desired. Serve warm topped with Romano cheese.

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