The CGC Cooks: Zuppa Toscana Soup

If it's one thing that I will do quick, fast and in a hurry it's make a good ol' pot of soup when the temperature drops and this week in Atlanta the temperature has dropped! Listen, it was so cold today, I promise my edge control froze. I love all type of soups and I even have a recipe for my creamy tomato soup + grilled cheese on the blog but today I am sharing one of my favorites. 

One of my favorite soups has to be the Zuppa Toscana soup. I was first introduced to it at Olive Garden many, many moons ago. Be just like a lot of restaurants sometimes it hits and sometimes it doesn't. However, one thing that can consistent is when you make something at home. You can perfect the recipe to your liking.  

Now I love to make Zuppa Toscana which translates to Tuscan Soup (Zuppa = soup, Toscana = Tuscan) on the stove in my dutch oven but you can get the same delicious favors in a crock pot. Simply dump the ingredients in and go. Let me tell you how I make mine.


Ingredients:

Zuppa Toscana

- 32 oz of chicken broth 

- 1 to 2 cups of water

- 3 - 4 medium russet potatoes (cleaned well and slices into 1/4 circle slices)

- 1 pound Italian sausage (mild or hot; which ever you like)

- 1/2 yellow sweet onion (chopped)

- 5 - 8 cloves of garlic (minced)

- 4 slices of bacon (I like thick cut)

- 3 - 4 hand fulls of kale (cleaned)

- 1 cup heavy whipping cream or half and half (which ever you prefer)

- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (more or less for your taste)

- 1 teaspoon garlic powder

- 1 teaspoon onion powder

- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese + plus extra for serving

- Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

- Salt and Pepper to taste

Garlic Parmesan Croutons

- 1/2 or whole French baguette

- 2 to 3 table spoons olive oil

- 2 teaspoons of garlic powder

- 3 teaspoons of grated parmesan cheese

- Optional Italian seasoning


Recipes:

  1. Cut strips of bacon into bite size pieces and fry until crispy. Remove from pan, drain off extra grease and sat a side. 
  2. (OPTIONAL) Sauté onions in bacon grease until translucent and add in garlic and saute until tender. Remove from pan and sat a side. 
  3. In the same pan add Italian sausage. While cooking be sure to break it up (I like to call this scrambling) with your spatua or spoon and cook until done. Remove from the pan and drain off extra grease. 
  4. In your crock pot (this is the easy part) pour in your chicken broth, add your potatoes, onions + garlic, and Italian sausage. Plus garlic powder, onion powder, red chili flakes, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. Add enough water to cover the top of potatoes. This could be 1 or two cups. 
  5. Close the lid and cook on high until the potatoes are fork tender. This takes about 2 to 3 hours or so. 
  6. Once potatoes are fork tender (meaning you can easily pierce them with a fork) add heavy whipping cream and let cook for another 20 minutes. 
  7. Add in parmesan cheese, bacon pieces, and kale after the 20 minutes. The hot soup will cook the kale in about 5 to 10 minutes so I do this right before it's done. 
  8. Serve with croutons and parmesan cheese if you would like. 

Croutons:

  1. Cut baguette into 1 inch pieces
  2. In a bowl mix olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings if desired
  3. Coat baguette pieces into olive oil mixture
  4. Spread on baking sheet or air fryer rack
  5. Bake or air  fry on 400 degrees until crispy and golden brown.

A few tips and tricks:

  • Cooking all about doing what you like so feel free to add more and less seasoning depending how you like it. I tend to taste mine once the potatoes are fork tender and adjust seasoning from there.
  • On the same lines of seasonings, I like to take it easy on the salt because a few ingredients in this recipe have salt in them so be careful.
  • You can also cook this low and simply adjust the time. 
  • The croutons are not necessary but I promise you wont regret it. 
  • If you don't eat pork try substituting for a ground chicken or turkey Italian sausage. 

That is it, that is all y'all! Let me know if you give this recipe a try or what you would add or change to it. I am always looking to update my recipes. Until next recipe, everybody can cook if you can read the recipe. 


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