Let’s make copycat zupa tuscana from Olive Garden. First, you start and you brown one pound of spicy sausage. Put to the side and drain, leaving the grease. Add four tablespoon of butter to the pan. On medium heat, you’re going to add half of a diced white onion. Sauté until translucent. And in the meantime, you should have cut up four to five yellow potatoes. I use russet. Once it’s translucent, you’re going to add one tablespoon of garlic. If you want to do more, add a little more, like a splash. Sauté for another minute until fragrant. Then you add six cups of chicken broth. I do chicken bone broth. It’s better nutrition, more protein. And then two cups of water. I do the two cups of water plus a little bit of bullion. I ended up adding an extra cup of broth for a little bit more. I like a little bit more broth. So, seven cups total with two cups of water and a scoop of the bullion. Then you have your seasonings. I like a lot of pepper. Salt says about three teaspoons or tablespoons, but I’m going to salt that to taste right now. I think that’s going to be good. Garlic powder. I’m eyeballing this right now. Little onion powder and Italian seasoning. Okay. Then you add your potatoes very carefully cuz they’re going to splash you. I just thought about this. Add the potatoes before the broth and the water and it will be so much easier. Bring that to a boil. And in the meantime, let’s get the kale ready. calls for four cups of chopped kale, but I cheat and I buy the baby kale. I take this down. I tear it up a little bit and then I add it. Put this kale to the side. And in the meantime, we’re going to cook up a few pieces of bacon to garnish our soup with. I add a little bit extra than garnishing, but that’s up to you. That’s use my kitchen scissors and I chop them up ahead of time. So, they’re like little bacon bits. Do four pieces. I’m wearing gloves. Let’s address the elephant in the room because I don’t like to touch raw meat. I think it’s disgusting, but that’s just me. I ended up adding one more piece of bacon, so five in total. I cut up really small with my scissors. I cooked them on like a medium high heat just to get them going pretty quickly. Splatter screens are my best friend. Going to get a slotted spoon, put them to the side. Everybody is okay in the background. I have a child that plays video games. Um, you’re going to put this to the side and add that when you add the sausage. Perfectly cooked. See how they’re already chopped up and ready to put in there? We have to try to make sure they’re good. [Music] Hot. These are adding it to the soup. So, you don’t want it to be too crunchy. You want it to still be soft but cooked. When we check the potatoes to make sure that they are cooked all the way, we’re going to see if we can stab it with a fork easily. Oh, baby, they are done. They are done. Turn it down a little bit. And this is when we add the kale. Add the kale. Oh yeah. It will wilt down. It seems like a lot, but it will go down. Stir that in really quick. You add two cups of heavy cream. When you have creambased broths, you don’t taste the broth as much. So that’s why I use a bone broth. So it’s more nutrientdense, but you’re not going to really taste it because of the heavy cream. So you’re not even going to know the difference. So trust me on this one. I promise. I promise. Stir that in as well. Oh, see that’s looking like it’s supposed to now. Yes. And this is when you add back that sausage that you made at the very beginning very carefully cuz it also splashes. There’s no easy way to do this. There we go. And the bacon that we just cooked as well. You’re supposed to garnish with this, but I like to just stir it in. Oh yeah. Look at that. I usually bring this back to a boil just to make sure that the heavy cream is heated back up. In the meantime, let’s try the broth to make sure that it has good flavor, that it doesn’t need any more salt, pepper, anything of that sort before it gets too hot. I don’t know that it needs anything. Maybe a little salt. That flavor is good. If you do it exactly how I did it, you can’t mess that up. I added a little bit more salt and pepper. One more taste test. One more. I already know this is going to be amazing because my kids ask for it all the time and I make it all the time. Look at that. Looks just like Olive Garden, but hardier. Once you have it at home, homemade, you’re not going to want to have it at Olive Garden anymore. I promise. Mark my words. But I think I’ve perfected this plus more. Garnish with lots of Parmesan cheese. This is so hot. Got to get a good bite. Try it for you guys. A little bit of kale in there. Make this so good. Make this. Make this.
Dining and Cooking