Zuppa Toscana (Italian Sausage Soup)
June 22nd, 2013 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia VolhinaZuppa toscana (or italian sausage soup with skin on potatoes, bacon and kale) is one of the reasons I usually go to Olive Garden for. Now with this recipe I don’t have to anymore (but I still can :), they also have neat tiramisu).
This soup has very distinctive italian taste because of spices in sausage. By the way either mild italian chicken meat mix with spices or sausages themselves will work for this recipe. I think meat mix is a bit easier to handle.
Using canned broth for this recipe is easier and saves time, but isn’t absolutely necessary, you can cook the broth yourself.
Serve this soup hot, that way it will provide nice warm feeling especially on cold weather. If you need to reheat the soup leftovers, don’t overheat it, just bring to light simmer and serve.
Ingredients:
- 1lb of mild italian chicken sausage mix or sausages themselves
- 2 big russet potatoes
- 1 onion
- 4 leaves of kale
- About 16oz-20oz of chicken broth of your choice
- 1 quart of water
- 1 cup of heavy whipping creams
- Half cup of bacon crumbles
- 2 garlic cloves
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- Olive oil for frying
How to prepare, step-by-step:
- Prepare ingredients: I usually make bacon crumbles myself, but ready to use will work as well:
-
Warm up frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil over high heat; if you use sausages then slice them in pieces and fry; if you use sausage mix like me follow next steps:
- Fry sausage pieces until colored from each side:
- Then move sausage pieces to a cooking pot:
- Peel and chop onion; reduce heat under pan and add a bit more oil to it; add chopped onions and fry them until transparent, stir from time to time:
- While onions are being cooked, pour all chicken broth to the cooking pot there sausages are:
- Add all water too, set pot aside:
- Peel and chop garlic cloves, add them to the pan where onions are, fry them together for a minute, stir:
- Wash russet potatoes thoroughly, leave skin on, slice each in half lengthwise, and then each half into pieces about ¼ of inch thick; add potato slices to the pan to onions and garlics:
- Add bacon, mix everything good, and fry potatoes until almost cooked, stir pot content from time to time:
- While potatoes are cooking, put the pot with sausages and broth to a burner and bring it to light simmer; then pour pan content of potato, bacon and onion mix to the cooking pot:
- Salt to taste:
- And season with ground black pepper, simmer everything for 5 mins:
- Slice kale leaves into stripes and add them to the pot:
- Pour heavy cream in:
- Mix everything and cook for 5 mins more:
- Then turn off the heat and serve hot: