Zuppa Toscana Soup

FREE garden kale from a friend of ours.  The realtor for the lake house.  We don't hold that against her.  ;-)  She grows great veggies & she shares.  :-)

Well, I think ...

Zuppa Toscana Soup

So yummy and so simple.  I always make a big pot of this, my family loves this soup.  Now that Olive Garden sells their salad dressing at the store.  You can do soup and salad at home.

I have played around with other recipes.  But I come back to this one.

Ingredients list

2 lb sausage (I usually use Jimmy Dean) I used a cheap store brand this time.

1 medium onion diced

5 lbs of potatoes washed and sliced

1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons chicken base

2 cups of milk (I use whole)

12 cups of water

This is a ONE pot soup.  Total cook & prep time 35 minutes.

While I fry the sausage. I dice the onion.

Put the cooked sausage in a strainer allowing as much grease as possible to drain off.  I sauteed the onions in the pot.  This takes 4-6 minutes on medium heat. 

When the onions are done I toss in the chicken base & 12 cups of water.

Add the red pepper flakes.  I am convinced that if you don't add them right away they stay hard and crunchy.  Bring the water to a boil.  I don't know how long that took.  Maybe 10 minutes with the lid on.

While you are waiting on your water to boil, wash and slice your potatoes.  Also wash, de-stalk & tear your kale.   I use to break out the mandolin slicer to make sure they were all even.  I quickly realized it doesn't matter.

The kale should be bite size pieces.

When your water reaches a boil add the potatoes.  Boil for 6-8 minutes.  When potatoes are done add the kale & cooked sausage.  Stir & Bring back to a boil.

As soon as the soup reaches a boil, turn the heat off and add the milk.  Stir & serve.

For quick clean up, I use a grocery bag to collect the trash. (that and my trash can is not near the island)   I am also a big fan of kitchen gloves.  The store brand sausage was fine.  It had great flavor, but was way more greasy than I am use to.  But I usually get my sausage from Sams club and I wasn't paying what they wanted for Jimmy Dean.

Thank you Angela for the yummy kale.  Now what to do with the other bag of Kale? 

Happy Cooking.