Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Soup

Now tell me who does not love a good soup?? Soup is my comfort food. The No 1 I go to when I'm sick. The hot soup going down your throat and warms up your chest (almost painfully scalding but oh-so-good at the same time) hitting your tummy, that is the best feeling I can get when I'm sick, especially with flu!

If you've been to Olive Garden, good bet is you tried this soup. Good bet is you loved it and the cheesesticks too!

I went to the website and they don't have this recipe up, so boo! But the one I have below is really close taste to theirs (hubby says it's even better and cost less than $10 to make for a HUGE pot... lol).

Now, I don't know how to make those cheese bread, so you'll have to find the recipe elsewhere.. :) . There are several changes you can make.

Sausage - you can find the sausage from anywhere. Generally, I like the one from Winco better than Walmart. Not gonna venture to other stores coz well, I'm more of a cost vs value person. I don't like spicy food much so I chose a mild instead of spicy.

Chicken Broth - I'm a true Chinese. By that I mean I'm very stingy. I love cooking another meal called porridge but that is another entry another time. Now, I saw how much those chicken broth by the packets or cans cost. Are you kidding me!? If you go to those spices aisle, you can find those cubes or powdered version. There will be an instruction on how to mix them and they make just as good a broth. Or, you can make the broth yourself, but the time and effort you have to spend is just not worth it.

Ingredients

1 lb. spicy Italian sausage
1/2 lb. smoked bacon - chopped 1/8th inch (about 4 slices is enough to be honest)
1 qt. water
(2) 14.5 oz. cans (about 3 2/3 cups) chicken broth
2 lg. russet potatoes - scrubbed clean, cubed
2 garlic cloves - peeled, crushed
1 med. onion - peeled, chopped
2 cups chopped kale OR Swiss chard
1 cup heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper - to taste

There are 2 parts to this. I'll put them as soup and meat. I prepared the soup base first as the potatoes need time to get tender. This usually takes around 15-20mins? I learnt in culinary books that 'simmer' means when there are bubbles that comes up to the surface slowly but not those violent bubbles when they boil rapidly. So, note that!

Soup Base

In a at least 3qt pot (for above ingredients, double your pot size if you're making more!), pour in water on high heat. Wait until it starts to simmer and put in the potatoes, wait until it boils for a while. When it starts to boil the starch in the potatoes will create these residue (I don't know what they are called), scoop them up and throw away. After the water is fairly clear, chuck in the garlic and onion. If you are using chicken broth mixture, pour in plain water and correct measurement of chicken broth powder. If you are using chicken broth then just pour that in now. 

Meat

Brown bacon in a pan over medium heat, making sure they don't get crispy burn. Once they are to your desired crispiness, drain the oil and set aside.

Prepare your sausages (peel off the skin). In a cold pan over high heat, put your sausage in, crumbling them as you go. This technique is called ... (Chef John explained this in his video for Sloppy Joe, go search it! lol), but anyway, it helps you to ensure the meat crumbles nicely. Once they are no longer pink, they are ready. Drain the oil and now we are onto the last part!

Ending

Pour the sausages and bacon into the soup base. Lower your heat until the soup just simmer softly for 10 minutes. If there is too much oil on the surface, scoop them up by putting a spoon on the edge of the pot with a slight pressure. You will notice the oil will go into the spoon and you can throw that away.

While waiting, we will clean a bunch of kale. Chop that first diagonally and then horizontally (so they are bite sized instead of awfully long). When 10 mins up add kale and cream into the pot, season with salt and pepper and serve! 

Tiny notes

• If you prefer your potatoes to be smaller, you can cut them in about 1/2inch thickness instead of cubes. That is how Olive Garden serve theirs. 
• Kale will turn slightly yellowish green after you throw them in. If you wish to maintain the presentation factor, throw in a bunch for the first few bowls (make sure you scoop them all up), preserve the rest of dinner or next day when you warm the soup in the pot.