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Zuppa Toscana is a hearty and delicious soup made with Italian sausage, bacon, Tuscan kale and potatoes in a creamy, flavorful broth.
What is Zuppa Toscana?
Zuppa Toscana translates to ‘soup in the style of Tuscany’ but in Italy, it is made with different ingredients than our version.
Our recipe today is a copycat version of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana – with Italian sausage, bacon, Tuscan kale, and potatoes in a delicious and creamy broth.
If you search on line, you’ll find lots of copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipes – all very similar to each other – but we’ve been told that our recipe is even better than the soup served at Olive Garden! (I have to agree!)
Our Zuppa Toscana is a hearty, delicious soup that will warm your belly and thrill your taste buds. Mangia!
Here are a few of Jack’s secrets to making a Better Than Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana:
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- Use a homemade chicken stock. The deep, rich flavors of a homemade chicken stock can’t be beat! While canned chicken stock is convenient, you really won’t achieve that ‘better than Olive Garden’ flavor using canned. Feel free to make the chicken stock ahead of time.
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- Include a mix of both sweet and hot Italian sausage. While many other versions of this recipe add a gentle heat to this soup by adding a pinch red pepper flakes, we decided to add hot Italian sausage to the mix — so every spoonful of soup had that spicy (but not too spicy) delicious flavor.
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- We added a few shakes of Worcestershire Sauce and Kitchen Bouquet* Browning and Seasoning Sauce at the end. Adding these extra, non-traditional seasonings to the soup is optional, but highly recommended to give the Zuppa Toscana a deep, savory flavor. Jack and I tasted this soup both before and after adding these extra seasonings, and no doubt about it — the zuppa was so much better with these seasonings added.
Reader Review
“This is just so delicious…the ingredients are spot on for flavor! It’s one of our top favs in soups! My picky 8 yr old grandson was hesitant but took his first bite and couldn’t stop until he ate the last drop! ☺️❤️” -Jeri
Zuppa Toscana Ingredients
- Chicken Stock – As we mentioned above, a homemade chicken stock will give you the best flavor but a quality canned stock can be used as a shortcut.
- Bacon – We used a thick cut cherrywood smoked bacon.
- Butter
- All-Purpose Flour
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Italian Sausage – We recommend using a mix of both sweet and hot Italian sausage for the perfect amount of heat in this soup.
- Onion – We recommend using a sweet onion such as Vidalia
- Fresh Garlic
- White Wine
- Tuscan Kale – This is the dark green, bumpy kale, not the curly kale. It’s also sometimes called dinosaur, Lacinato, or black kale. We prefer the Tuscan kale because it’s not as tough and fibrous as the curlier kale varieties. You can, however, use the curly kale – it just takes longer to cook to get tender.
- Yellow Potatoes
- Heavy Cream
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Kitchen Bouquet – This is found at most supermarkets in the spice aisle and is a great all-purpose seasoning liquid with uses well beyond just making gravy. You can also find it online here. Gravy Master brand can also be used.
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- Salt – If needed.
Cooking Tips
- The proportions of sweet and hot sausage used in this recipe are really up to you. We did two parts sweet and one part hot. But if you like less heat, add more sweet and less hot. Alternatively, if you like it hot, add more hot than sweet sausage.
- As mentioned above, to live up to the the “Better than Olive Garden” claim, homemade chicken stock is almost a mandatory ingredient here. This soup is intensely good and using canned chicken stock wouldn’t do it complete justice. However, if you have to use canned, it will still be good (just not AS good).
- Heavy cream is one of the few dairy products that you can get really hot without it breaking. That said, don’t bring the soup to a boil after it is added.
- If you use regular curly kale instead of Tuscan kale, it will need to cook longer before you add the potatoes. Test and once tender, add the potatoes and continue on. Tuscan Kale is also know as Dinosaur kale, Toscano kale, palm tree kale and Lacinato kale.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I use spinach instead of kale? You can. But, since spinach takes less time to cook than kale, just add the spinach toward the end of the cooking process.
- Can I freeze this soup? Yes, you can. Just note that the potatoes may be a little softer after freezing and thawing.
- Can I use light cream, half and half, or milk instead of heavy cream? Yes. Just note that the soup won’t be as creamy.
- Can this Zuppa Toscana be made in a slow cooker? We’ve never adapted this recipe to the slow cooker, so I can’t specifically speak to the results. Keep in mind that once the stock is made (or you use canned stock) the soup only takes about an hour to prepare – so a slow cooker won’t really save much time – in fact, it will take longer to cook.
This Better Than Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in February 2019. We’ve updated the post, but the delicious recipe remains the same.
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(Better Than Olive Garden) Zuppa Toscana
Zuppa Toscana is a hearty and delicious soup made with Italian sausage, bacon, Tuscan kale and potatoes in a creamy, flavorful broth.
Ingredients
2 quarts homemade chicken stock *see Notes below
4 slices thick cut bacon (we used cherrywood smoked)
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds Italian sweet sausage removed from casing *see Notes below
1 pound Italian hot sausage removed from casing *see Notes below
2 cups sweet onion, diced
2 tablespoons fresh garlic minced
1/4 cup white wine
1 large or two medium heads of Tuscan kale stripped from stems and chopped (4 cups packed once chopped)
1 1/2 pounds yellow potatoes, skinned and diced (hold the diced potatoes in a bowl of cold water until you need them)
2 cups heavy cream *see Notes below
Few shakes Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet Browning and Seasoning Sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt, only if needed
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken stock and set aside.
- In a medium saute pan, cook bacon until crisp and remove. Crumble and chop bacon into rice-sized pieces. Set aside.
- Remove all but two tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pan and heat to medium low. Add the butter to the bacon fat and once melted, add the flour to form a roux and cook for three minutes. Set this aside for now.
- In a 6-quart soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high until shimmering and add the sausage meat, breaking up the meat into small pieces as you cook and brown.
- Once browned, add the cooked bacon along with the onions and garlic and cook for three more minutes until the onions are tender.
- Add the wine and cook to evaporate, about three minutes.
- Add the stock and bring to a boil then add the kale.
- Bring the heat back up and simmer five minutes then add the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 5-10 more minutes.
- Add the cooked roux from earlier and with a wooden spoon, stir it in to slightly thicken the soup.
- Lower heat to medium and add the cream, Worcestershire sauce, Kitchen Bouquet and the black pepper.
- Taste and only add salt if needed.
- Once the soup is at serving temperature (be careful not to overheat), ladle into bowls and enjoy.
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Notes
- The proportions of sweet and hot sausage used in this recipe are really up to you. We did two parts sweet and one part hot. But if you like less heat, add more sweet and less hot. Alternatively, if you like it hot, add more hot than sweet sausage.
- Homemade chicken stock is almost a mandatory item here. This soup is intensely good and using canned chicken stock won’t do it complete justice. However, if you have to use canned, it will still be good (just not AS good).
- Heavy cream is one of the few dairy products that you can get really hot without it breaking. That said, don’t bring the soup to a boil after it is added.
- If you use regular curly kale instead of Tuscan kale, it will need to cook longer before you add the potatoes. Test and once tender, add the potatoes and continue on. Tuscan Kale is also known as Dinosaur kale, Toscano kale, palm tree kale and Lacinato kale.
I’ve made this recipe and it is a huge hit in my circle!! ❤❤❤
So glad to hear that Dorothy – thank you!
My daughter and I love this soup,we freeze it in serving size containers to enjoy.A few days ago I wanted some but didn’t have anymore in the freezer,so I ordered sone from Olive Garden,I must say it tasted ok but it doesn’t compare to homemade.
Aw…thank you so much Tina! So glad you are enjoying the soup recipe!
So much better than Olive Garden. Loved it. Great recipe.
Wow! Thanks Paula!!
The soup was absolutely delicious! No hot sausage for us! Was skeptical about the kale but wished I had put more in. Very easy to prepare. Thank you for sharing!
You’re very welcome Maryjo – glad you enjoyed the soup!
Family loved the soup! Had buttermilk cornbread with it. For me, there was too much cream and too much meat. And I held back on both. But overall wonderful recipe!!!!
Thanks Parrish!
The soup was wonderful. The hot sausage add a.tangy spicy taste to the soup. I loved it. Thank you
You’re welcome Erlinda!
Just finished eating a huge hardy bowl of this amazing soup! So delicious! My husband said this has to be a new addition to our list of meals we make. I did change it a bit. I used about a half cup of cream and one and a half cups of milk. LOVE!
Thanks Nanette! So glad the recipe was a hit!
Can you use red curly kale for this recipe? I went to purchase green curly kale, but the red curly kale looked better. Curious if I can use it for this recipe? Will it change the taste? Thanks, Beth
Hi Beth – Yes – you can use it. Just a quick note – our recipe called for Tuscan kale (which is more of a dark green, bumpy-looking kale) but you can use either the green or red curly kale as well. The curly kale you bought might take a little longer to cook to get tender so just keep that in mind as you make the recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
Could I use Spinach instead of Kale? Recipe sounds awesome, therefore that is why I am rating this as a 5 START recipe
Thanks, Janet
Hi Janet – Yes, you can swap in spinach. The spinach won’t need as much time to cook as the kale, so just add that toward the end of the cooking time. Hope you enjoy it!
Hello Martha! You know I love your recipes ! I have never had this soup but want to know if I could substitute broccoli rabe instead of the kale? Not a fan of it but I do eat broccoli rabe all the time. Just a thought. I would like your opinion please. I have home made stock in my freezer all the time. It’s something I have done most of my life thanks to Mom. Have a great day!
Hi Doris – Sure – you can swap in a different green instead of the kale. BTW – Tuscan kale is (in my opinion) much better tasting than the regular curly kale – if you haven’t tried it yet, you might like it! Hope that helps!