Zuppa Toscana Soup

Zuppa Toscana is an Olive Garden soup recipe that has sweet Italian sausage, potatoes, bacon, and kale. It’s simmered in a chicken broth and topped off with half and half for a delicious finish.

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Zuppa Toscana Soup

If you grow kale in your garden, it lasts all the way until the first frost, and can sometimes even be harvested afterward, as long as it wasn’t a truly hard frost. I didn’t have any this year, but last year mine grew like crazy!

RELATED: Love a good Italian sausage soup? Be sure to check out our Italian Sausage Tomato Orzo Soup that everyone goes crazy for!

I have been making this soup since 2014 when I first discovered it. I love that it’s filling but doesn’t feel heavy like many cream soups do. But because this soup is mostly chicken with a much smaller addition of half and half it doesn’t have that heaviness to it.

Be sure to top this delicious soup with some freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and some bacon!

Zuppa Toscana basically means soup made Tuscany style. The original Tuscan soup is made with several of the same ingredients as this soup, like kale, potatoes, onion, and rigatino (Italian bacon). However, the original also has zucchini, cannellini beans, celery, carrots, and powdered chili. It is then served on toasted Tuscan bread.

Ingredients you need for this Zuppa Toscana recipe:

• 5 slices bacon, cooked and chopped or crumbled
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped (about one cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound bulk sweet Italian sausage
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 3 large russet potatoes, cubed
• 2 cups chopped kale
• 1 1/2 cups half and half
• salt and pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish

Helpful Kitchen Tools:

• Dutch oven
• Wooden spoon
• Soup bowls
• Soup spoons

1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for a few minutes, until tender. Add garlic and sauté another minute.

1. Add sausage and cook until no longer pink. Drain off fat.

1. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and add chicken broth. Return the sausage to the pan along with the potatoes and half of the bacon. Cook over medium-high heat until boiling.

1. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

1. Add kale and half and half and heat through, about ten minutes. Serve each bowl topped with freshly grated cheese and remaining bacon.

More Olive Garden Copycat Recipes

If you love Olive Garden, then be sure to try our Olive Garden breadsticks as well. We are also a fan of their peach tea and bruschetta, so we made those too!

This recipe was originally published here on October 6, 2014