If you love Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana, you’ll go nuts for this Zuppa Toscana copycat recipe. It’s chock-full of potatoes, kale, bacon and sausage, and it’s just as good or even better than Olive Garden’s Zuppa.
I’m a bit of a soup-a-holic. I love making homemade soup, and I rarely pass up an opportunity to order soup when I’m in a restaurant. My very favourite restaurant soup is Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana.
Because we don’t have an Olive Garden nearby, I don’t get their Zuppa Toscana often. Thankfully, a good friend of mine, gave me this copycat recipe for Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana a few years ago, so now I can make it at home whenever I want.
Quite honestly, I think this copycat recipe is actually better than Olive Garden’s Zuppa. I’d be interested to know if you agree, so if you make it, please leave a comment below, and let me know.
In case you’ve never had Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana Soup, let me enlighten you. (If you’re familiar with it, feel free to skip straight to the recipe card at the bottom of the post.)
What is Zuppa Toscana?
Zuppa is the Italian word for soup, and Toscana is the Italian word for the region of Tuscany, so translated literally, Zuppa Toscana means “Tuscan Soup”.
Zuppa Toscana is a traditional Italian soup made with a kale or spinach, onions, celery, carrots, beans, olive oil, toasted bread, spices and bacon.
This Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipe is a cream based soup, chock-full of spicy sausage, bacon, potatoes, onions and kale. It’s so rich and flavourful my mouth literally starts watering whenever I think of it.
The spicy sausage lends some heat to the recipe, but if you’d prefer less spice, you can use mildly spiced sausage or even regular breakfast sausages. Your zuppa will still be delicious because, sausage, bacon, potato and kale… How can that combination NOT be good?
If you love the Olive Garden’s Zuppa, this copycat recipe will not disappoint you. Promise.
Ok, let’s make Zuppa Toscana soup!
Zuppa Toscana Copycat Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 lb spicy ground sausage (I often just chop up 3 jumbo sausages. I like the “medium-spicy” ones, but use mild if you’re opposed to heat)
- 1 large white onion, diced
- 4 slices fried, chopped bacon
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 8 cups water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 cubes of chicken bouillon (or as much liquid bouillon as you’d need for 9 cups of liquid water)
- 3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 2 cups fresh kale, chopped
How to make Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana with Kale, Cream, Sausage, Bacon and Potatoes
- Sauté your sausage in a large pot until it’s cooked through. Drain the grease, and remove the sausage, and pop it into the refrigerator. You won’t be needing it for a while.
- Leave a little bit of grease in the pot (maybe a tbsp or so).
- Now you’re going to fry your bacon in this pot. You want to use the pot that you just cooked your sausage in because it has all that flavourful sausage goodness in there.
- Sauté your bacon until it’s half-way cooked, and then add your onions and garlic, and continue to cook over LOW heat until the bacon is fully cooked and the onions and garlic are soft.
- Add a bit of your water to deglaze your pot, and then add the rest of the water and the bouillon, and bring it all to a boil.
- Toss in your cubed potatoe, and cook over medium heat until the potatoes are cooked. This generally takes about a half-hour.
- Stir in the cream.
- Add your sausage and chopped kale, and heat through.
- Serve your amazing Zuppa Toscana with a loaf of homemade bread or my easy bread-machine dinner rolls
Frequently Asked Questions about Zuppa Toscana:
You can find the nutritional value for this Zuppa Toscana recipe in the printable recipe card below.
Is Zuppa Toscana Gluten Free?
Yes, this recipe for Zuppa Toscana is gluten-free.
One serving of this zuppa contains 14g of carbs. You can reduce the carbs by substituting cooked cauliflower for the potatoes.
Yes, I freeze zuppa toscana all the time. The texture of the potatoes may change once frozen.
Yes, you can substitute all or a portion of the heavy cream in this zuppa toscana recipe for half and half or regular milk. Your soup won’t be quite as rich, but it will still be delicious.
Soup’s on! Or, maybe I should say “Zuppa’s on!”
And remember to let me know what you think of this zuppa recipe!
In your opinion, is it as good as Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, or is it even better?
More great homemade soup recipes
Zuppa Toscana – Olive Garden Copycat Recipe
This cream-based soup is chock-full of bacon, potato, sausage and kale. It’s easy to make, and tastes just as good (if not better) than the Olive Garden’s recipe.
Servings: 8
Calories: 339kcal
Ingredients
- 1 lb spicy ground sausage (or 4 large sausages, casing removed)
- 1 large white onion diced
- 4 slices fried chopped bacon
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 8 cups water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
- 3 large potatoes peeled and cubed
- 2 cups fresh kale chopped
Instructions
-
Sauté your sausage in a large pot until it’s cooked through. Drain the grease, and remove the sausage, and pop it into the refrigerator. You won’t be needing it for a while.
-
Leave a little bit of grease in the pot (maybe a tbsp or so).
-
Now you’re going to fry your bacon in this pot. You want to use the pot that you just cooked your sausage in because it has all that flavourful sausage goodness in there.
-
Sauté your bacon until it’s half-way cooked, and then add your onions and garlic, and continue to cook over LOW heat until the bacon is fully cooked and the onions and garlic are soft.
-
Add a bit of your water to deglaze your pot, and then add the rest of the water and the bouillon, and bring it all to a boil.
-
Toss in your cubed potatoes, and cook over medium heat until the potatoes are cooked. This generally takes about a half-hour.
-
Stir in the cream.
-
Add your sausage and chopped kale, and heat through.
Nutrition
Calories: 339kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 406mg | Potassium: 599mg | Fiber: 2g | Vitamin A: 2155IU | Vitamin C: 31.2mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 3.5mg
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Zuppa Toscana – Kale, Sausage and Potato Soup –
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