Recently a dear friend inspired me with the idea of creating a mock Zuppa Tuscana recipe from the classic soup at Olive Garden. This has definitely been my favorite item on their menu for the occasions when we visited this restaurant. After experimenting with making it at home, and experiencing such wonderful results, I just had to share the recipe with you. I am sure there are many variations on the web, but this was our adaption. It is my favorite soup of all time, and my husband was quite impressed. It is a new regular on the menu now! Even with bacon (which is special occasion item at our house) and sausage, this dish cost less than $1 per serving, making it very frugal. Deliciously creamy, rich, and full of flavor, I am sure every family member will love it! Top with shredded parmesan cheese and you will be in heaven! 
1/2 lb bacon (preferably natural, nitrate free)
1/2 lb chicken Italian sausage or bulk sausage of your choice
4-6 potatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minsed
6 cups chicken stock (you can easily replace some with water as you have available – I used 4 cups stock, 2 cups water)
2 cups whole milk, half & half, or raw cream
1 head of kale (5-6 leaves, as desired), chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese
In a small pan, cook the bacon. Save bacon grease, if desired. Cool and finely chop. In a large pot, cook the sausage, onions, and garlic (in bacon grease, if desired) until the sausage has browned. Crumble sausage as you cook it. Add the potatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Once it has reached a boil, turn it down to low and simmer for 20 minutes or so, just until the potatoes are tender. Add the milk, kale, and bacon and allow to cook for 5-10 minutes. Season to taste. Top with parmesan cheese for extra flavor! Enjoy! Makes 6-8 servings. Freezes well.
I’m so glad I checked your blog before heading out to the grocery store! I’m amending my menu for the week to add this soup. I can’t believe it’s so frugal. It looks delicious too. Thanks for sharing.
Um, yes–I will definitely be making this this week!
This looks really delicious, and I think the kids will like it. I just have one question (and it seems silly, but I’m going to ask it anyway) is the chicken sausage the kind that you slice? or the kind that is crumbly when it’s cooked?
And also I read that your kids are not feeling well and I will pray for you now as I get ready for our day.
Thanks for taking time to write your blog. I love your recipes and from you I learned about soaking grains! I received a grain mill for christmas and it’s been such a blessing.
I just use the bulk chicken sausage or sausage links. It is the kind that crumbles when it cooks. Thanks for your prayers!
My mouth is literally watering. Can’t wait to make this.
Thanks for the good soup recipes…one can never have enough good soup recipes for winter I think. Its funny you posted this as I just found my FoodDay version of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Tuscana yesterday. I love this soup. Now I’m off to compare the two recipes.
Zuppa Toscana is my absolute favorite soup. Every time my father-in-law comes to visit we have to go to Olive Garden and I get Zuppa Toscana and salad. I have had to eliminate dairy from my diet while I am breastfeeding my daughter. I wonder if another kind of milk would drastically change the taste. Oh, and don’t forget about the red pepper flakes! Granted sometimes when we eat there are red pepper flakes and sometimes there isn’t. Thanks for the recipe!!
That looks so good! Thanks for sharing!
that looks wonderful! I think this will be on our menu soon
when we go to OG my husband always gets this soup. he will be thrilled to be able to have this at home. it looks easy too. thanks for posting the recipe!
This looks fantastic; I can’t wait to make it. When I cook anything that has crumbled bacon, instead of cooking, then crumbling, I snip the raw bacon into tiny pieces with my kitchen scissors, then cook. It cooks faster, and it’s already crumbled. Just my tip for the day!
Love your blog!
I love this soup at The Olive Garden and I’m excited to try out this recipe! I have one (silly?) question, though, is there a difference between chicken stock and chicken broth? Thanks so much for your blog. I love reading it and learning new ideas from your wonderful experience!
No, chicken stock and broth are the same. Sorry for the confusion.
Actually they are different. Stock is made w/meat, water and veggies. Broth is made by using just bones and water.
And to add, stock will always have more flavor than broth.
Thanks so much for sharing this! It looks so cozy and delicious. Also very frugal, which is my favorite!
Thanks again!
I love that soup. My friend recreated it before I had tried it a Olive Garden, and I was impresses. Thanks for sharing your version – it looks delicious!
Is there any other greens that can replace the kale? Like spinach?
You are more than welcome to try a different green, like spinach. I have not attempted it. Kale is so wonderful in this because it gives it a slightly crunchy texture and holds it shape well even when cooked. Spinach would fall apart and probably not look appealing.
I saw your tweet about this and added it to my menu this week…thanks for posting the recipe! Yum!
Wow, that looks and sounds so good. I needed a new soup recipe, as I dont want the boys in the house to get tired of my potato soup recipe that I make often. This actually has a lot of similar ingredients too, so its not like I need to change the shopping list much…and boy I cant believe how frugal it is!
Looks so yummy!!! Thanks for sharing!
We LOVE this soup; it’s my husband’s favorite. I’ve been making it for years, very similar to this recipe. The only differences are that I cook Italian sausage links in the oven for 30 minutes, saute the garlic and onion in the bacon fat, and add the crumbled bacon and sliced sausage after cooking the potatoes. This soup is SO GOOD!!!
I made the soup last night and everyone loved it! Thanks again for sharing.
While I don’t eat at Olive Garden very often (infact, I don’t remember the last time I was there), that soup IS fabulous! Can’t wait to try that out…with some salad and crusty bread!!! Now how about a copycat nutritional recipe for their tarimisu? Then I’ll REALLY be in heaven!
I made this last night for me and my husband. We both loved it! I didn’t know the sausage was supposed to be crumbly- I used chicken breakfast sausage links. It came out really good. I like the idea of the sausage crumbling in it though. I’ll have to try that next time.
Thanks for sharing and know that the hard work you do and in keeping this blog is the best ministry for a home-maker ever and it never ceases to inspire me. I aspire to be like you and appreciate this blog and love learning from you.
thanks a trillion!
Tiffany Clark
Love this recipes, thank you! My hubby and I order this soup every time we go to Olive Garden. It’s delish! Thanks.
Yummy ~ This looks fabulous! I will have to give it a try ~ thanks for sharing with us!
Blessings,
Camille
thanks for sharing this- my husband has wanted to figure out this recipe for years! I’m so excited to try this and it sounds like winner.
Thanks for sharing! I LOVE SOUP SEASON! Now, I just wish my kids were as enthusiastic about it as I am. : )
Oh, this sounds amazing! I am bursting at the seams with potatoes from the CSA and just got 2 bunches of kale as well! New Seasons, I just discovered, has Italian Sausage for $2.49/lb or something close to that nowadays, which is a great price for free-range, nitrate-free sausage!
I was going to make that very dish this week, and think I will throw some navy beans in as well!
Thanks for your blog. I’ve been SOOO blessed by implementing the morning routine and keeping my “daily scripture” in my back pocket! I think of you whenever I do it!
Bless you,
Carrie
Wow! Thanks for your timely post! I’m striving to prepare more foods that please my dear husband, and he really enjoys this yummy soup when we eat at Olive Garden. I can’t wait to surprise him with it tomorrow night!
I just love soup at this time of year. Thanks for posting a deliciously creamy one!
My family of 7 just had this for dinner tonight. Delicious! I substituted chopped fresh spinach as I had no kale….it was not as crunchy as kale would have been, but still added a nice dark green color and of course, the vitamins. Thanks for the recipe!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! This is my absolute favorite soup and it’s the only thing I order on the occasion we eat at Olive Garden. Can’t wait to try making it!
And while I’m here I just want to thank you for your blog! It has been such a blessing and encouragement to me. May the Lord bless you richly!
Long time loiter first time commentor. I used this recipe and made the soup on Tuesday. It was FANTASTIC tasted just like the one from The Olive Garden. Thanks so much for supplying the recipe.
Thank you for giving me a meal the whole family enjoys! I coupled it with a homemade foccocia bread, and what a hit! Love, love, love your blog. God bless your sweet endeavors.
WOW!!! Another fantastic recipe!! My husband could not stop raving about this soup and I can see it is going to be one of our new favorites!! Thank you so much!
I made this tonight, and neither my husband nor I really liked it at first. It was ok. However, I had also pureed some for my texture-picky daughter (she’s a year) and I liked hers. So I pureed the rest of it, and we really liked it that way. Neither of us could really figure out WHY we liked to better that way, but I really changed it and made it yummy.
Just made this today…fantastic! We will be making it again!
it was delicious – even though my husband was skeptical, and we didn’t use bacon, he absolutely loved it!! thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve got to make this! So I linked it to my blog.
I made this today and it was DELICIOUS! My 16 year old son said it was one of the best soups he has ever had!
This has been MY favorite thing at Olive Garden for years, too! It is actually the ONLY reason I go there … plus the salad & breadsticks
I am excited to try this recipe. Thanks!!
Hi Lindsay — we made this last night for dinner and it was wonderful. Do you mind if I post our version and link back to you?
Yes, feel free to tweek and pass it on!
This is an absolutely amazing soup! Thanks so much for the recipe!
This is now one of our family favorites too. Thank you and God Bless!
My husband and I loved this soup. I hadn’t tried kale in soup, but it holds up quite nicely. Our only idea for the next time is that I may thicken the liquid so it is more of a chowder than a thin soup. But the flavor was so good!
Thank you for your wonderful soup recipes. We are a soup loving family.
Made this soup for dinner tonight and we LOVED it! Thank you so much! Many blessings!
We had this soup for dinner, served in homemade bread bowls. YUM! The only thing I did differently was instead of kale, I used spinach. Delicious!