Zuppa Toscana

Bring Olive Garden home with this delicious Zuppa Toscana – a creamy soup with Italian sausage, potatoes, and kale!

You know how Olive Garden has those amazing all-you-can-eat soups? My favorite is the Zuppa Toscana. I love it so much that I’ve come up with a version to make at home.

This popular soup recipe has flavorful Italian sausage, hearty potatoes, and healthy kale for a delicious soup that can work as an entrée.

Read more about this Olive Garden copycat soup below or click here to head straight to the recipe.

Jump To:

1. What Is Zuppa Toscana?
2. Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana At Home
3. How To Make Zuppa Toscana
4. Quick Tuscan Soup Tip
5. Can I Make Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana?
6. More Olive Garden Style Recipes
7. Podcast Episode: Making Zuppa Toscana
8. Zuppa Toscana Recipe

What Is Zuppa Toscana?

Zuppa is Italian for soup and Toscana refers to the region of Italy called Tuscany. So it translates as “Tuscan Soup”.

Traditionally in Italy, Zuppa Toscana was more of a lightly spicy vegetable soup. In North America, a different version with a thin cream broth and Italian sausage has been made popular by Olive Garden. Both version have kale though, so there is something they have in common!

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana At Home

For this soup recipe, I’ve tried my best to keep the number of ingredients, and the amount of time and fussing to make it, really down, while getting it to taste as much like Olive Garden’s as possible. I skipped the bacon in my version, because I didn’t find that it added that much, or not as much as the effort of having to chop and cook bacon involved. 

It still has the tender potatoes, delicious Italian sausage, kale, and some cream. More flavor is added with onion, garlic powder, and optional red pepper flakes. Feel free to add some Parmesan cheese on top when you serve this wonderful zuppa toscana soup.

I make this soup a lot and getting it to a point where I can whip it up in a flash was important to me. This Zuppa Toscana is made on the stove, the traditional way. It’s all done in one pot, so clean up is quick.

How To Make Zuppa Toscana

This is such a quick soup to pull together. The reason is that the Italian sausage gives off so much flavor that you don’t really have to simmer things for long.

What you do is to heat a bit of olive oil in your soup pot. Take the casings off of your sausage (or use ground Italian sausage meat that was never formed into sausages, if your grocery sells this). Cook it, stirring occasionally to break it up into bits, until cooked through.

Then you add in a chopped onion and let that soften a bit. Next you go in with chopped potatoes, chicken stock, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and garlic powder. Bring it to a simmer.

Then add the kale and let it wilt into the soup. Finally, drizzle in some heavy cream, stir, and serve!

My favorite thing to do is to take one of the spicy, vinegary pepperoncini peppers from the Italian salad and kind of squeeze it into the zuppa, then drop it in and stir it around. It gives the soup some tang and heat.

Quick Tuscan Soup Tip

Get the soup together even quicker by cooking the sausage in the air fryer while you get the onions and potatoes going in the pot. If you want full sausages you can cook them with the casings on like this. But for soups and pasta sauces, the best thing to do is first remove the casings. 

I use a pair of clean kitchen sheers (scissors) to cut all along the casing in a straight line, then unwrap the sausage. Repeat with all the sausages and put them into the air fryer. Cook for about 7 minutes at 400°F. Then, use a wooden spoon to break up the meat. Then cook for another 3-4 minutes until browned and crumbly. 

By the time the sausage is ready, the potatoes are probably cooked and fork tender. Add in the sausage, then continue with the kale and cream. 

In my quick soup recipes, I’ve also been known to heat the broth in the microwave so that it comes to a boil on the stove much quicker.

Can I Make Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana?

Yes, this soup works well in the Instant Pot if you prefer that method.

What you do is to heat a bit of olive oil in your Instant Pot set to the sauté function. Take the casings off of your Italian sausage and cook it, stirring occasionally to break it up into bits, until cooked through. 

Then you add in a chopped onion and let that soften a bit. Next you go in with chopped potatoes, chicken stock, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and garlic powder. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook on high for 3 minutes.

After the pressure cooking is done, turn the valve to Venting and let the pressure release. Then add the kale and let it wilt into the soup. Finally, drizzle in some heavy cream, stir and serve!

More Olive Garden Style Recipes

Podcast Episode: Making Zuppa Toscana

Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this delicious soup, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:

Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.

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Zuppa Toscana Recipe

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5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 8 servings
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian

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DESCRIPTION

Bring Olive Garden home with this delicious Zuppa Toscana – a creamy soup with Italian sausage, potatoes, and kale!

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Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 lbs. mild Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 lbs. white potatoes (about 6 medium), in 1/2-inch cubes
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken stock
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4–1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 8 cups (packed) torn curly kale, stems removed
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

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Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the sausage. Use a wooden spoon to break it apart as it cooks. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally and breaking it up more, cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Use a spoon to drain off any excess fat or liquid.
3. Add the onion. Stir and cook until softened, 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the potatoes, stock, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes (if using). Stir.
5. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
6. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes are softened, 7-10 minutes.
7. Stir in kale and simmer for a moment until it wilts.
8. Remove from heat. Stir in cream. Taste and season with additional salt, if desired.

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This post originally appeared in March 2020 and was revised and republished in August 2024.