It almost pains me to give my husband credit for this soup recipe, but really it was his idea. He dropped the not so subtle hint by sharing a similar recipe on my timeline. I tracked down the original recipe to Food.com and decided to humour him.
The recipe was actually very good (sorry, I have never had the Olive Garden version so can’t compare the two), but I did make a few changes. Mainly I sautéed the onion, omitted the water and used Swanson Tuscan Chicken Flavor Infused Broth for the chicken broth. These little tweaks worked out really well, and this is definitely a recipe I will be making again soon!

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Copycat Recipe
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cups chicken broth I used Swanson Tuscan Chicken Flavor Infused Broth
- 3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- In a large stockpot or dutch oven cook Italian sausage over medium heat, crumble the sausage as it cooks with a spoon. Cook until cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove sausage crumbles with slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add onion to the sausage drippings, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes, add garlic and cook about 2 more minutes. Stir in chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in sausage and spinach until spinach begins to wilt, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream until heated through.
- Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe adapted from: Food.com
Rachael Lloyd
Saturday 16th of December 2017
You really need to replace the spinach with kale or escarole. You add it (about two handfuls) about 5 mins before the soup is ready to eat, just enough to wilt it. I worked at OG for a few years and found myself missing this soup.