Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

When I was in high school, we had an early release day once a month, on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday for a couple of years, I would go out to lunch with my mom, and my two best friends Megan and Meghan. We always, always went out to Olive Garden and had the endless soup & salad lunch combo. It was a great ritual and I will always remember it fondly. My soup of choice at the Olive Garden was the Zuppa Toscana, a spicy sausage & potato soup with some greens and a creamy broth. I finally decided it was time to learn how to recreate it. Here's my best effort.

Ingredients, left to right: One bunch kale, washed and torn into bit sized pieces; 32 oz/4 cups chicken broth; 1/2 of one large white onion, diced small; 3 russet potatoes, cut into chunks; 1 pint/2 cups half & half; 1-2 cloves garlic, minced.

You'll also need one pound of italian sausage. The sausage makes the soup, so make sure you get seriously quality stuff. Get the spicy sausage if you like spicy foods - it adds extra kick to the soup:

Step 1: Crumble the sausage into bite-sized chunks and brown it in batches:

Step 2: Remove the sausage to a plate, then cook the onion in the same pot until softened:

Step 3: Add garlic and cook for another minute or so until fragrant:

Step 4: Add the sausage back to the pot with the potatoes:

Step 5: Add the chicken broth. If it is not enough liquid to cover the potatoes, add water as necessary:

Step 6: Bring it to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are completely cooked and fork tender:

Step 7: Add the kale and 1/2 & 1/2, then leave on the heat until warmed through. Do not boil.

Step 8: Serve and enjoy with some crusty bread:

So yummy! I officially never have to go to the Olive Garden again.

Sausage Potato Roast

As mentioned elsewhere on the tubes, I made an attempt at a sausage & potato roast a week or so ago. For a first try it wasn't so bad but I wanted to perfect it a bit before I put it on the blog. Tonight was my second attempt and I think it turned out well, so here goes:

Step 1 - Start out with some potatoes. I had Yukon Gold and some new red potatoes, so I used those:

Step 2: Cut them up in to bite size pieces and put them in a baking dish. Add some olive oil to coat them (not too much) and some salt and pepper. Then put them in a 400 degree oven to bake for about 20 minutes:

While the potatoes are baking, take out the rest of the ingredients. Sausage, about one whole sausage per person (I got pork/garlic/shallots from our local specialty butcher. YUM!), half an onion (color of your choice), and a package of mushrooms.

Cut up the onions and mushrooms then, after 20 minutes, add all of this to the potatoes. Nestle the sausages down in the middle. Cook for 20 more minutes and then turn the sausages. Cook for still 20 minutes more or so and everything should be done and look fantastic, kind of like this:

Enjoy!