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Not your Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Soup

This easy one-pot version of Olive Garden's delicious Zuppa Toscana soup is simple, quick to make and even better than the original! 
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Italian, Tuscan
Keyword italian sausage, kale, Soup
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 6
Author René Wilson

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds mild Italian sausage ground (can sub hot, sweet or a combination here)
  • 2 yellow onions diced
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 cartons chicken stock 32 oz each
  • 6 cups yukon potatoes sliced 1/8"-1/4" thick
  • 1 bunch kale curly or flat
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • shredded parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

  • Wash and remove stems from kale and set aside.
  • In a large pot over medium heat, crumble sausage and begin to brown. Cut onion and toss in with the sausage. Cook about 5 more minutes or until sausage is completely brown. When sausage is fully cooked, add minced garlic and cook an additional minute. Then, drain off excess fat.
  • Return sausage and onions back to the pot. Turn the heat up to high and add chicken stock and salt. While the stock is heating, cut potatoes in half and slice with mandolin or knife. Add to pot and bring to a boil. 
  • Cover and reduce heat to medium. Cook about 5 minutes.
  • While potatoes cook, cut kale into bite-size pieces. Add kale a little at a time and stir into soup to wilt. Add pepper, cover and let stand 5 more minutes or until potatoes are tender.
  • Turn off the heat to prevent overcooking potatoes and serve topped with optional shredded parmesan cheese.

Notes

  • Leave nutrient dense skins on your potatoes. It adds to the heartiness of the soup.
  • If you don't have a mandolin to slice your potatoes, just cut your potato into slices no bigger than a half inch thick.
  • One bunch of kale varies in size from store to store. I say, put in whatever 'one bunch' means to your produce guy... unless he's very generous, and you think it might be too much for one pot of soup. I like him though!
  • It's hard to chop a bunch of kale, but if you chop it several times from different angles, you will have good bite size pieces rather than large chunks. 
  • Overcooking thinly sliced potatoes with result in potatoes falling apart... It will still be delicious though!