Zuppa Tuscana

 

For my 176th posting and final posting of 2014, I made Ryan's favorite meal, Zuppa Tuscana from Olive Garden. When we go to Olive Garden for dinner Ryan always gets all you can eat Zuppa Tuscana and spaghetti and meatballs. Ryan's strategy is to have 4 bowls of soup with bread sticks and take home the spaghetti and meatballs and have for lunch and dinner the next day. We all really like this soup and I think I'll be making this many more times.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground sweet Italian sausage

4 pieces of bacon cooked and chopped into bits

1 medium yellow onion

1 glove garlic

4 medium size Yukon gold potato's

6 kale leaves

1 - 32 ounce fat free, reduced sodium chicken stock

16 ounces water
Pinch red pepper flakes

1 cup heavy cream

 

Preparation:

Take a 12" sauté pan and heat to medium high. Add the ground sausage and cook thoroughly. When done, drain off the fat in a colander and discard the fat. Take the sausage and add to a large stock pot you're going to use for the soup.

 

Fry the bacon until crispy. Drain the bacon slices on pepper towels. Discard all but one tablespoon of the bacon fat from the sauté pan. You will use this to sauté the onion and garlic. When the bacon is cool, dice into 1/4" x 1/4" pieces and toss into the stock pot.

 

Dice the onion to 1/8" x 1/8" pieces and mince the garlic. Sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Don't be in a rush and burn the onions or garlic. Add the cooked onions and garlic to the stock pot.

 

Cut the potato's into large bite size pieces and add to the stock pot. Remove the stem from the kale leaves and cut the leaves into ribbons and add to the stock pot.

 

Add the chicken stock, water and pinch red pepper flakes to the stock pot. Heat the soup on medium high to just below a boil, reduce to simmer and cook 15 minutes. After 15 minutes the potato's should be fork tender. Lastly, stir in the heavy cream and you're done.

One thing I would recommend time permitting, make this soup mid-day, cover and just let sit on the stove all day slowly cooling to room temperature. The flavors will be so much more rich. Re-heat and serve in the evening.