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Love the Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana? It’s so simple to recreate it at home. This creamy sausage, bacon, potato, and kale soup is total comfort food!
Try my Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli, Easy Chicken Gnocchi Soup, or Minestrone Soup Recipe for more restaurant-quality dishes you can replicate in your kitchen.
Why you’ll love it
If you haven’t tried Zuppa Toscana yet, it’s about time you do! It’s immensely popular for a reason. It’s simple to make even for new cooks, very satisfying, and feels like a cozy yet impressive treat that you could easily serve for company.
Our sausage, bacon, potato, and kale soup has everyday ingredients, and you can control exactly what’s going into this robust soup that’s inspired by the Olive Garden favorite. We think this copycat recipe is way better than the original!
What is Zuppa Toscana?
- “Zuppa Toscana” literally means “Tuscan soup”, but from an American point of view, it commonly refers to the soup found at the Olive Garden restaurant with sausage, kale, and bacon. It’s a fairly brothy (not too thick) soup that’s definitely not authentic Italian, but it sure is tasty.
What you’ll need
- Bacon – I chose thick cut
- Sausage – Johnsonville mild Italian is my go-to variety for this soup. Ground sausage meat is good too.
- Onion and garlic – our aromatic base. I like sweet Vidalia onions.
- Broth and water – I prefer using chicken broth, but beef broth works as well
- Potatoes – we like using red potatoes with their skins on
- Italian seasoning – fragrant dried herbs like rosemary and thyme are found in this tasty blend that’s all in a single jar
- Heavy cream – it’s what makes that broth irresistibly creamy!
- Kale – another signature component for a burst of freshness
What’s the best kind of potatoes to use?
- I typically use red, but Russet potatoes, Yukon Gold, or even other varieties will work just fine. I don’t peel them, but you definitely can.
- This soup is pretty forgiving on the quantity of potatoes. I typically use four medium-to-large red potatoes, which I know is really subjective. I’d aim for around 1.5 pounds of potatoes if you’re looking for a specific weight.
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- Using this garlic press makes it effortless to mince the garlic.
- This is the or Dutch oven I use.
- Cutting up bacon with a pair of kitchen shears makes it fast.
How to make Zuppa Toscana
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Sauté the bacon in your soup pot. Give it a few minutes head start prior to adding the sausage pieces. Cook until the bacon is crispy and the sausage is browned. Meanwhile, prep the remaining ingredients as it’s cooking.
Add the onion and garlic to the pot and sauté for a few minutes, then add the chicken broth and water to the pot, followed by the potatoes and Italian seasoning. Bring the soup to a boil, and cook until the potatoes are done.
Stir in the cream and kale. Cook for another 5-10 minutes or so until the kale is nice and tender to your liking. Season with salt & pepper to taste!
Crockpot and Instant Pot methods
- Want to make it in your Instant Pot? Head on over to my Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana recipe.
- To make Zuppa Toscana in a slow cooker, do steps 1-4 (in the recipe card below) in a skillet, and then transfer to your Crockpot. Add in remaining ingredients except for the cream, kale, and salt & pepper. Cook for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 on low, then add in the cream and kale about 20-30 minutes prior to serving. Season with salt & pepper as desired.
Substitutions and variations
- A lot of people like a spicy version, so feel free to use hot Italian sausage if you want a kick, or try 1/4 tsp or more of crushed red pepper flakes for a gentle heat.
- Substituting spinach instead of the kale works fine, but it’ll wilt much faster, so make sure to watch it carefully.
- If you need to, replace the cream with half-and-half, but with recipes like this, I prefer to go all out. You can’t beat real cream, in my opinion!
- Go ahead and grate some fresh parmesan cheese on top for even more luxuriousness.
What to serve with Zuppa Toscana
- I always pair this soup with a big ol’ slice of Extra Cheesy Garlic Bread, but crusty bread, a dinner roll, or breadsticks works great too.
- My go-to salad is always dressed up with this homemade Olive Garden Salad Dressing for OG night at home!
Leftovers and storage
- This soup makes great leftovers. It’ll keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- If you freeze the soup, it can separate a bit when reheating, though, so reheat on a low temperature and stir it well. Alternatively, if you’re planning for a lot of leftovers, just add in the cream when thawing and reheating.
More restaurant-worthy recipes
Have you tried Zuppa Toscana? Leave a comment below. Questions? Let me know! You can also tag me on Instagram #saltandlavender with your beautiful creations.
Easy Zuppa Toscana
Ingredients
- 5 strips of bacon (thick cut works best)
- 1 pound Italian sausage see note
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups chicken broth (beef works too)
- 4 cups water
- 4 large red potatoes diced (leave skins on)
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 1 small bunch of kale torn into bite-size pieces (remove stems)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Using kitchen shears (or a knife), cut the bacon into small pieces and add it to a pot. Cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat to give the bacon a bit of a head start before adding in the sausage.
- Add the sausage meat to the pot.
- Allow the sausage and bacon to get nicely browned and crispy (this can take 15+ minutes). Stir occasionally. There may be quite a lot of fat in the pot (especially if you're using thick cut bacon), so you may want to spoon some out and discard it, but be sure to leave a few tablespoons in there as it adds flavor.
- Stir in the onions and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth, water, potatoes, and Italian seasoning to the pot.
- Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat to simmer.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Add in the cream and kale, and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the kale is soft and wilted. Season with salt & pepper as needed.
Notes
- To save prep time, I chop the onion and potatoes while the bacon and sausage cook.
- For the sausage, either use ground sausage meat or a pack of Italian sausages (I use a 5-pack of Johnsonville mild Italian sausages that’s 500g/17.6 oz. here in Canada) and take the meat out of the casings. A little more than a pound is totally fine!
- Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes would work if you don’t want to use red potatoes. Aim for approx. 1.5 pounds of potatoes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This post was originally published on September 23, 2015. I’ve updated it with new photos, text, and a better written recipe!
Wish I could post a pic! The Soup was beautiful and very tasty. Very close to the Olive Garden version. I often get this soup to go and add bacon and cheese, so this recipe is a keeper!
Thanks!
Very happy you enjoyed it, Lexi!! 🙂
This was… not good. Hard to believe another commenter said it was “the tastiest soup they ever made.” Despite containing browned sausages, it had almost no flavor. The broth was thin, chickeny water with some separated cream/oil floating unappetizingly in it.
I should’ve known — the recipe calls for dumping in the cut up onion, potatoes and garlic to the pot AFTER adding in chicken stock and water. What’s the point of even adding onion and garlic if they go straight into a pot of liquid and you’re not going to sautee them to draw out their flavor? Feels like a Cooking 101 oversight.
This was the first recipe from the blog I’ve tried. The photos are mouthwatering but I’m hesitant to try others now.
[Apologies for the double post. Forgot to rate the recipe.]
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it, Tess. You do have a point with the garlic and onion – although I do think the soup does have plenty of flavor without sautéing them, I’ll put them in as a sauté step. I do that in most recipes. I do have a note in the recipe card already that states you can drain off some of the sausage fat. I’ve made this soup tons of times without draining the fat, and it’s always been a hit.
No the recipe says add the onion and garlic to the browned bacon and sausage and let cook. After that add the liquid.
Agree that exactly what it says and by doing that with meat add extra flavoring accenting each other perfectly this isn’t split pea!!! Thanks for the soup recipe sorry so many negative people without taste buds on here!
Thank you 🙂
Then you fucked it up. I made this soup for thousands at the restaurant. If yours was bad, you did it wrong. Wash and PAT DRY your kale/spinach/swiss chard. Use the thickest cream you can find. Dont dump all the fat from your pork, and spice to taste, but to be honest, this recipe is nearly exact, and the couple subs used here are perfect. Try again, and limit the moisture from anything except the cream.
This soup is perfect.The seasoning was just the right amount, and it was creamy and filling. I wouldn’t change anything about it.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Michelle! Thanks for leaving me a comment! 🙂
I picked my very first homegrown kale harvest this morning and immediately went looking for a recipe to use it in. I’m very familiar with the soups at OG, so I knew this one had to be a winner. I was right, it’s fabulous! With autumn finally making an appearance, this comfort food is perfect. So delicious! Thanks for sharing it with us!
I am so happy you liked it, Teresa! What a great way to use fresh garden kale! 🙂
This is a great recipe and in my regular rotation from Fall to Spring, sometimes even Summer! My husband will always go for seconds! We shop at Trader Joe’s every week, and they have a very good chicken Italian sausage that I use in this recipe. I also use pancetta instead of bacon. Don’t forget to sprinkle on the parmesan cheese to finish it off!
I am so happy you like it!! Love TJ’s!
This is a favorite of mine and yours was perfect. I did drain some fat off and used half and half instead of cream to cut calories a tiny bit. It was excellent!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Jessica!
Great soup &even better the next day had my gall bladder out & a few years later found that grease was a little much i drain it out of the bacon&sausage it cuts down on to much oils in it i love this soup have made it for years making it today another freezing cold. snowy Colorado day yummy!
So glad to hear it! ♥️
Made this tonight. Exactly as described. This was the tastiest soup I’ve ever made. Absolutely perfect. Thank you for sharing!
Ahhh I am so happy to hear that!! Thanks so much for letting me know!
hi! im making this right now in a crockpot so that its ready later today in the evening. i cant wait! ive tried two of your other recipes and they were both DELICIOUS! i cant wait to try this one!
Wonderful! I am so happy you like my recipes. 🙂 Let me know how this one goes!
I have drifted through some of your soup recipes and they just look and sound so tasty! It’s still a little cold in the UK – I’m so going to try them out (with just some minor subs being Paleo and all). Love your site, thanks for the lovely recipes!
Thanks!! It’s cold here too – I know what you mean.
I forgot to add bacon …but this is the best soup…I will make this for Christmas dinner with bacon. yummy. Thank you for posting the recipe.
You’re welcome! It is such a good soup ?