Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup
Try this Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 26.3132465376667 g
- Cholesterol 110.558601166667 mg
- Fat 48.3730002075 g
- Fiber 2.08097827310165 g
- Protein 19.0429466975 g
- Saturated Fat 18.8400497193417 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (557g)
- Sodium 108069.282993704 mg
- Sugar 24.232268264565 g
- Trans Fat 3.61605673335 g
- Calories 615 calories
Step-by-step
- In a dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside.
- In the same dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat, brown bacon; remove and set aside. Leave two tablespoons of rendered bacon fat in the skillet.
- Saute the potatoes, onion, and garlic in the rendered bacon fat over medium or low-medium heat. Saute until the onion begins to be translucent and the potatoes have are still a little firm, but are beginning to soften.
- Add the sausage, bacon, 7 cups water, and 3 chicken bouillon cubes to the pot. Simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the kale and simmer for about 3 minutes or until the leaves are tender and bright green. Slowly stir in the heavy whipping cream and simmer for 5 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
The Danger of Doubling Dairy
Home cooks often ruin this soup by blindly doubling the heavy cream when scaling up for a crowd. Heavy whipping cream curdles when subjected to prolonged high heat or excessive acidity, turning a velvety broth into a grainy disaster. Maintain the ratio of one cup of cream to seven cups of liquid regardless of whether you increase the meat load. Pour the dairy in during the final five minutes of simmering to protect the milk solids from separating.
Adjusting Starch and Fat Ratios
Russet potatoes release massive amounts of starch into the cooking water because of their high-amylose content. If you double the potato quantity without increasing the water and bouillon proportionally, the soup transforms into a heavy mash. Retain two tablespoons of rendered bacon fat for sweating the onions and garlic, but drain excess grease if you use more than one pound of spicy Italian sausage. Leaving too much pork fat in the Dutch oven overwhelms the palate and coats the surface with an unappealing oily sheen.
Controlling the Kale Collapse
Adding greens too early ruins the structural integrity of the final dish. Kale requires exactly three minutes in simmering liquid to turn bright green and tender without losing its characteristic chew. Overcooking turns the leaves gray and releases sulfur compounds that muddy the clean flavors of the garlic and chicken bouillon base. Chop the leaves into uniform one-inch strips to ensure they hydrate evenly during that brief thermal window.
