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Before I realized I had food intolerances, I loved going to the Olive Garden. I’d stuff myself with Fettucini Alfredo, breadsticks, soup and salad.

Tasty Zuppa Toscana. Real food, homemade version of the Olive Garden favorite.

I especially loved their Zuppa Toscana, a sausage potato soup topped off with fresh kale and red pepper flakes. Mmmmm. Thank goodness for unlimited soup. I miss that the most about the Olive Garden.

Luckily for me, I discovered a great Zuppa Toscana recipe to satisfy my craving in the comfort of my own home. This recipe is a combination of two that I’ve found, that I have tweaked, as usual.

Zuppa Toscana

  • 1/2 pound sausage
  • 6 potatoes, sliced thinly
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 8 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 4 kale leaves, chopped
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy – less/none if you don’t)

In the pot that you’ll be cooking the soup in (I use my cast iron Dutch oven), add sausage, onion and garlic. Brown and crumble sausage.  Add the potatoes and stock and bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and cook until potatoes are tender.

Add milk and kale and cook another 5 minutes, just to wilt the kale. Don’t let it boil as the milk will curdle.  Season to taste.

*This post had a picture when I posted it. However, I just checked it to link to it and found that the picture was gone, as well as half the post. Weird! I fixed the post, but the picture seems to be gone forever.