Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Copycat Recipe
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So easy to make and 10x better than the original! With Italian sausage, potatoes, spinach + bacon!
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why i love this recipe
A homemade replica version of the most favorited Olive Garden soup? Yes, please! Now this copycat recipe comes together in one single pot, which is always a win on those super busy weeknights (hello, easy clean up here), loaded with crumbled spicy Italian sausage, tender russet potatoes, sneaked in greens and all the crispy bacon bits on top.
WHAT IS ZUPPA TOSCANA?
Zuppa toscana is a soup from northern Italy in Tuscany. Translated word for word, zuppa toscana literally means Tuscan soup, also known as minestra di pane in Italy (bread soup).
tips and tricks for success
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Add the cream slowly. Always add the heavy cream at the very end, pouring very slowly to prevent curdling.
- Make it dairy-free. Need a dairy free option? Substitute coconut cream or skip the half and half.
- Add garnishes. Garnishes are always optional but a fresh sprinkle of grated Parmesan or some crispy bacon will certainly take your soup to the next level, adding more flavor, texture and contrast.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
WHAT TO SERVE WITH ZUPPA TOSCANA
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Copycat Recipe: Frequently Asked Questions
The spicy Italian sausage does pack a little bit of heat but you can substitute mild Italian sausage as needed.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the heavy cream and bacon (cream soups tend to separate when frozen) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding heavy cream and bacon when serving.
Absolutely! We have a recipe for that here.
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casing removed
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium hight heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; drain excess fat, reserving 2 tablespoons in the stockpot, and set aside.
- Add Italian sausage and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat, reserving 2 tablespoons in the stockpot.
- Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in spinach until wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream until heated through, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with bacon.
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Could I use red potatoes instead? It’s all I have on hand.
Yes, that should be fine.
I love the debate over the health aspect of kale vs spinach in a soup that has bacon, Italian sausage and heavy cream !
All in all though, this is a wonderful soup. Amazing on a chilly night – add some crusty bread and prepare to purr.
Nancy,…LOL! Too funny! 🙂 Yet, of course, as you further observe, this truly is a *wonderful soup*, etc. The three of us, here, *absolutely love it*,…along with my MlL & SlL, who now constantly request that we make more (never mind I gave them the recipe – they just don’t do home cooking much anymore. My wife’s mother is 90+ and and her older sister is 64 😉 Subsequently, when we made our latest batch, I increased the ingredients, thus allowing more for us all. To wit:
Using a 1-1/2 gal stockpot…
Garlic – 6 med cloves
Onion – 1 large Vidalia
Chicken broth – 3 qts
Sausage – 2-1/4 lbs, mild ground
Bacon – 1 full pkg
Cream – 1 pint
Potatoes – 6 med + 2 to mash for thickening
Since my wife is on blood thinner meds, and to avoid gassiness, we only included a minimal amount of kale with the bulk of the added greens being baby spinach. – Even with the mashed potatoes, it didn’t thicken up as much as we hoped, but it didn’t really matter for us. In the words of my late FIL, *GULP*-*CHOMP*-*SLURP*,…Uber yummy!! 🙂 – Thanks ever so very muchly!!
yum,,,,this is awesome,,used half and half,,,no bacon,,,made home made rosemary and sea salt croutons ,,,too good
I substituted Full fat coconut milk to make this dairy free and I really liked the result. The coconut kind of tied in with the fennel in the sausage and was super yummy!
i love OG Zuppa but this recipe doesn’t sound like the soup I eat. There isn’t any bacon. Also there isn’t any spinach, rather kale. This looks delicious though
Karen, this is really an Olive Garden version made better with bacon (because bacon makes everything better!) and spinach (which has a less harsh taste than kale).
For everyone commenting on the bacon, in the OG soup there are little cubes of pancetta, which is just basically italian bacon. you could use pancetta instead, but bacon is cheaper and i dont think it should alter the flavor too much
I LOVED this recipe! I had never had this at OG before, but had to try it! My husband, who is not a soup fan, even approved! I replaced one of the potatoes with a parsnip and felt like it gave it another layer of flavor!
I love soup.. especially on a chilly day! I have made this many times. I am making a pot today but I use broccoli rabe instead of spinach or kale. I just chop it up, put it in a pan with some of the chicken stock, some garlic and two teaspoons of sugar until it is tender. Drain it and add to soup when done. It is delicious
This soup is delicious! For the greens I used a mixture that Costco sells of organic power deep greens: baby kale, chard & spinach. So good! Thank you for sharing recipe.
Love all of your recipes! You should totally make a copycat recipe of Olive Gardens Gnocchi & Chicken soup! I’ve been craving it! Thanks!
Is there anything I should do different to make this in an electric pressure cooker?
Lloyd, I have never used a pressure cooker before so I cannot answer with certainty what should or should not be changed. Please use your best judgment to convert this recipe to utilize a pressure cooker.
This IS better than Olive Garden! 🙂
This was so delicious!
I have found that if you’re going to use kale and find it strong, put it in from the beginning and boil it a bit longer than the potatoes. Turns out tasty without the harsh and cooked like it should be. I make an anduille, white bean and kale soup and have to cook it longer than the recipe calls for. Makes it scrumptious!
Made this today and the spinach beats the Kale at OG. This reciepe is better than the soup I get at OG. Thank You Absolutely Perfect !!!!
If you happen to have any left over, can it be frozen?
Unfortunately I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. I recommend using your best judgement for storing leftovers and reheating.
Hello J. Harold Ray,
Don’t freeze cream soups if they really have cream in them and are not just pureed soups.
Cream soups are the hardest to freeze. Milk products often separate and get watery.
If you are using real cream, freeze the base and then add the cream when you prepare it to eat.
Several “cream of ” soups that use pureed vegetables and not heavy cream, those soups freeze well. Most other food products using heavy cream (with the exception of ice cream and a few decent desserts) do not freeze well at all.
I’ve made different variations of this recipe dozens of times. I prefer to use kale if I’m gonna add something green, and the secret to making it more like OG’s is using turkey sausage! I couldn’t figure out why the sausage never tasted quite right, then on a whim one day I tried it with turkey sausage, and that was it! One of my absolute favorites to make, and it is always better when you do it yourself.
LOVE THIS!
I made some minor modifications:
1. I used a roll of spicy Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage
2. I fried the bacon, then fried the sausage in the bacon fat, then sauteed the onions and garlic in the bacon/sausage fat for extra flavor
3. I used small new potatoes, unpeeled and quartered. Put them in with the chicken stock before it reached a boil as you should never add potatoes to boiling water or they will be mushy outside and raw inside.
5. Added lots of extra seasonings (sage, red pepper flakes, onion/garlic powder, italian seasoning) and added a big handful of REAL parmesan cheese (not shaker stuff) at the end.
WONDERFUL! Even my hubby who doesn’t believe soup is a meal loved this. Served it with breadsticks. Can’t wait to warm up the leftovers tomorrow.
I agree it needs some spice. Added twice as much garlic, then cayenne, then garlic salt. Will try the parmesan. You can’t go wrong with cheese!
This is happening soon!
Looks so good! I’m starting my grocery list now. Thanks.
I’ve made this recipe so many times. Thank you!!!!!