COPYCAT OLIVE GARDEN ZUPPA TOSCANA
Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana is a hearty Italian, homemade, creamy sausage and potato soup. Serve with OLIVE GARDEN BREADSTICKS and it is heaven!
VIDEO INCLUDED BELOW:
WHAT DOES ‘ZUPPA TOSCANA’ MEAN?
Zuppa Toscana just means Tuscan Soup in Italian. But is sounds fancier in Italian, right? 😉 It’s like PASTA E FAGIOLI just means Pasta and Beans in Italian but it sounds so much better when you say Pasta e Fagioli. Ha!
HOW DO YOU CUT KALE?
This is a question I get a lot. Kale is a lot like collard greens and mustard greens and if you’ve ever cut those, then you’ll be familiar. If you’ve never dealt with any kind of large green, I will show below how to do it in my step-by-step instructions.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
bacon
Italian sausage
yellow onion
garlic
chicken stock
russet potatoes
salt and pepper
kale
heavy whipping cream
grated Parmesan cheese
bacon
Italian sausage
yellow onion
garlic
chicken stock
russet potatoes
salt and pepper
kale
heavy whipping cream
grated Parmesan cheese
HOW TO MAKE OLIVE GARDEN’S ZUPPA TOSCANA:
First chop up your kale. If you’ve never worked with greens before, it’s important to remove the stems and wash any grit off. Cut the kale in a “V” pattern to separate the leaves from the stem. Chop up leaves into bite size pieces. You want about 2 cups worth of leaves.
Then throw kale into a colander and rinse well to remove any dirt or grit that might still be hanging on. Let it drain well.
Meanwhile, in a large pot, brown and crumble sausage along with onions. During the last couple minutes of cooking, toss in garlic. Once cooked, drain excess grease.
Return sausage mixture back to pot and pour in chicken stock. Then add in cubed potatoes.
Cover and allow potatoes to simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until tender. Once potatoes are tender, pour in heavy cream and stir. Season with salt and pepper.
Then stir in kale and chopped, cooked bacon. Bring mixture back up to a simmer and allow the kale to soften and wilt.
Give it a test (be careful – it’s hot!) and see if you need more seasoning like salt or pepper.
Then serve!
Enjoy
Originally published April 2013
Updated and republished: May 2019
OLIVE GARDEN ZUPPA TOSCANA
Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana is a hearty Italian, homemade, creamy sausage and potato soup. Serve with breadsticks and it is heaven!
Print Pin RatePrep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 623kcal
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 32 oz container chicken stock or 4 cups
- 3 cups russet potatoes cubed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups kale washed and cut into bite size pieces
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- Garnish: Parmesan cheese grated, to taste
Instructions
- First chop up your kale. If you've never worked with greens before, it's important to remove the stems and wash any grit off.
- Cut the kale in a "V" pattern to separate the leaves from the stem.
- Chop up leaves into bite size pieces.
- You want about 2 cups worth of leaves.
- Then throw kale into a colander and rinse well to remove any dirt or grit that might still be hanging on.
- Let it drain well.
- Meanwhile, in a large pot, brown and crumble sausage along with onions.
- During the last couple minutes of cooking, toss in minced garlic.
- Once cooked, drain excess grease.
- Return sausage mixture back to pot and pour in chicken stock.
- Then add in cubed potatoes.
- Cover pot and allow potatoes to simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until tender.
- Once potatoes are tender, pour in heavy cream and stir.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Then add in kale and chopped, cooked bacon.
- Stir again. Bring mixture back up to a simmer and allow the kale to soften and wilt.
- Give it a taste test (be careful - it's hot!) and see if you need more seasoning like salt or pepper.
Video
Notes
collard greens or mustard greens can be used in place of kale
Nutrition
Calories: 623kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 53g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 151mg | Sodium: 1097mg | Potassium: 729mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 3105IU | Vitamin C: 34.9mg | Calcium: 103mg | Iron: 2mg
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BE SURE TO TRY THESE OTHER OLIVE GARDEN COPYCAT RECIPES!
Olive Garden is a registered trademark of Darden Restaurants, Inc.
What do you mean by whipping cream? Are you talking about the whipped cream that goes on top of pies etc….
Hi Devonne, check out my ingredient photo above and you’ll see what I am talking about. Heavy whipping cream is a liquid and you can find it where the milk is located in the grocery store. Hope that helps! 🙂
This is a great recipe but I was wondering if there’s a healthy version of it?
Cauliflower instead of potatoes
Cauliflower is awesome with this recipe!!!
Wow! This soup turned out perfect. Thanks for the great recipe!
I made this soup last night, and my husband commented that it’s better than the OG version. Thanks so much for posting this.
Love this recipes! I also add a can of white cannelini beans and use once can of evaportaed milk instead of heavy cream. A sure winner in this household, thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for this recipe!!! The Zuppa Toscana is my absolute favorite soup. I followed your recipe and it tasted exactly the same as Olive Garden. I’m so glad I can make it from home now!
Recipe turned out well. I added one chicken bouillon cube for flavor and used real Bacon bits pieces in place of fried bacon.
We love this soup! My Husband is a huge fan of it and says that its better than Olive Gardens! we enjoy it so much that I make it year round! Gotta love a really good one pot meal too!
I love Olive Garden but I like this recipe even more. I really don’t like Kale so I add fresh spinach to each bowl before adding soup. Delicious……….. btw, I never have whipping creme so I add milk or half and half or whatever I have (sometime condensed) Still delicious…..Thanks!
I made this yesterday and we loved it. It was very close to Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. Love it!
This has become one of our go-to dinners. So fresh and simple and my goodness delicious!!! We always pair it with a loaf of French bread. Leftovers don’t last long!
Thank you so much Payton! I am so thrilled to read this!!
So delish!!! I didn’t add bacon and it was still good. I think the only thing I would change is to dice my potato’s a bit bigger (my own fault). I love how SIMPLE this recipe is!!!!
My family loves this soup!! Thank you for posting it!!! Definitely will make this again !!!
I order this each time I visit Olive Garden, well… since I’ve decided that eating out wasn’t something I wanted to continue doing, I wanted to give this recipe a try. THIS RECIPE IS BOMB!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!!! Breadsticks, soup, paired with a salad is perfect for a cold day!!!
Woo hoo! Yay!! This is so wonderful to read. I am thrilled you loved it!!!
Made this tonight and it was awesome! My family loved it and I only had half and half at home so I used that instead of heavy cream. So delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Yay!! Thank you Margaret! You are so sweet to come back and leave a review! So happy you loved it!!
Heavenly!! Made the recipe x4 for daughters baby shower. Everyone one raved about it and asked for the recipe!!
I am wondering though, if anyone has ever frozen it before? I love to have on hand for those gotta have it moments:)
Awwww wow!! So happy to hear that Shannon. Thank you so very much! I haven’t personally frozen it but I think you can definitely do that. As long as it is sealed well, it should hold up in the freezer. 🙂
I’m making this soup tonight for my kids. Can I make it in a crockpot after browning the sausage and onion of course?
I love love love this recipe, made it about 4 times now!! I think it’s way better than OG. I use precut kale or baby kale and it still turns out wonderful. Many thanks for sharing!
Woo hoo!! Thank you so very much Leah!
I’ve made this so many times and it’s always delicious!