Zuppa Tuscana Soup- Olive Garden at Home!

Whew, the last two days have been busy. Yesterday we had parent teacher conferences, one basketball practice, three basketball games, and a science fair project to finish. So far today we’ve had Dad’s and Doughnuts at the school, the science fair, house cleaning from top to bottom and 8 loads of laundry. In the middle of all that I am refinishing a table for our entry way. Yikes! I am really looking forward to a somewhat slower weekend!

If your life resembles mine, (and if it does- know that I feel your pain), this is a great recipe for you. Olive Garden Zuppa Tuscana Soup.  It is really fast to put together. Perfect for those crazy, running around like a chicken with your head cut off nights.
I tasted this soup at a church potluck recipe and I was hooked from the first bite! Lucky for me they were handing out recipes. As I was eating it I was thinking that it tasted just like a soup you would eat at a yummy Italian restaurant. When I came home and researched it, I found out that it is a copycat recipe from Olive Garden. I’ve never had this soup there, so I can’t personally vouch for it’s authenticity. But I can tell you that it is darn good! I was a little worried that my kids wouldn’t like it, but they all did. Even asked for seconds. That is a winner in my book!!

Olive Garden Zuppa Tuscana Soup

1# pork sausage
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 slices bacon (optional)—I didn’t add it
6 cups chicken broth (I used homemade broth and chicken bouillon with water)
4 potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 cups chopped kale
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 cup cream
pepper to taste

Brown sausage with onion (add garlic the last couple of minutes). Drain if needed. Cook potatoes and kale in broth till tender. Add sausage, Italian seasoning, and cream and heat through. Add pepper to taste.

-Serves 8

Cost:
sausage $1.30 (on sale)
onion .35
garlic .10
broth .40
potatoes .40
kale .60 (I only used half of a $1.20 bunch)
seasoning, pepper .10
cream .50 (on sale)

Total cost: $3.75
Cost per serving: $.47
A bowl of this soup at Olive Garden is $4.35. If you make it yourself, you can feed 8 people for less than that. What a bargain!!

Notes:
-I didn’t use the bacon and thought it was fine without it. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups cream, but I only had one, so that’s all I used.
-If you use chicken bouillon instead of the broth, use 2 Tbsp for the 6 cups of water. I recommend using only 1 Tbsp bouillon and 3 cups water and the other 3 cups either homemade or canned broth. If you use all bouillon/water, the soup is quite salty.
-Make sure you chop the kale into small pieces.
-If you have small children, it is easier for them to eat if you cut the slices of potato into halves or fourths.
-This soup is thin, like broth. If you want it thicker, you could whisk some flour into the cream before you add it.