Thursday, September 20, 2007

Olive Garden Soup

Inspired by "Zupas" in Alysha's post, here is a recipe for my favorite soup ever - Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana. This recipe is so amazingly close that we hardly dine out for it anymore. I've got another recipe for their salad (dressing included), but I haven't tried it out yet. Hope you enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1-2 lbs spicy Italian sausage (not in the casings - found packaged like ground beef)
3/4 cups onions, diced
10 slices bacon
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. chicken bouillon powder (or 2 cubes, crushed)
2 quarts water
5-6 medium potatoes sliced up and then halve the slices
2 cups kale leaves sliced thinly (spinach can be substituted)
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (try fat free half and half)
parmesan cheese for garnish

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Place sausage links on a sheet pan and bake 25 minutes or until done. Cool, then cut in slices, then halve the slices.
Put onions and bacon in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until the onions are almost clear. Remove bacon and crumble.

Add garlic to onions and cook one minute. Add bouillon powder, water and potatoes. Simmer 15 minutes.

Add bacon, sausage, kale and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve. Garnish with parmesan cheese.

Buon appetito!

6 comments:

Charlotte said...

This sounds great! Thanks for posting it. Please post the salad as well when you can. Thanks! I will be making it this week. Yum-O!

*alysha* said...

now that's the good stuff I'm talking about - Thanks :)

Kacey said...

Yum Yum...soup is the best Fall food when it starts getting chilly outside. This looks delish. Thanks for the recipe!

Julie said...

Yummers! Especially since its almost soup season again!

Jocelyn said...

I'm super bummed that we don't really get "fall season" here. I need to take a trip to a cool place and make this soup... or I'll wait for it to cool off a little here (like in December when it starts to cool down). YUM!

Charlotte said...

Thanks again for the recipe. I tried it yesterday and it was a big hit. It was very good!