I bet you have finished a bowl of Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup and wondered if you could make this soup at home. Yes, you can make this favorite soup from Olive Garden! You will have a creamy soup filled with crispy bacon, chicken stock, and pork sausage that becomes a family favorite from the first taste.
On a cold winter many years ago, I craved the comforting warmth of Olive Garden’s famous Zuppa Toscana. Instead of heading to the restaurant, I decided to recreate this beloved soup in my kitchen. After numerous attempts and tweaks, I’ve perfected this copycat recipe that captures the essence of the original with a creamy, savory soup that’s both hearty and satisfying.
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Table of Contents
Why This is the Best Recipe for Zuppa Toscana
This is the best copycat, Zuppa Toscana, because it contains everything you love about this soup. Italian sausage, many Russet potatoes, and bits of smokey bacon are all served in a creamy broth. This Italian soup is packed with everything so that you can enjoy this delicious soup at home. Be sure to serve it with some crusty bread!
What is Zuppa Toscana?
Zuppa is an Italian word for soup. Toscana is the Italian name for the region of Tuscany. So Zuppa Toscana is Tuscan soup.
Olive Garden Tuscan soup is creamy, hearty, and loaded with Italian sausage, tender potatoes, and kale. It is an excellent meal with Olive Garden breadsticks and Italian salad. It is also Olive Garden’s most famous soup, and serves countless bowls of it every day.
Why This Recipe Works
This is the best copycat, Zuppa Toscana, because it contains everything you love about this soup. Italian sausage, russet potatoes, and bits of smoky bacon are all served in a creamy broth that perfectly balances richness with hearty satisfaction. The key is browning the sausage properly in the oven to develop deep flavors, then building the soup base with aromatics before finishing with cream and fresh kale. This method ensures each component maintains its distinct character while melding into a harmonious, restaurant-quality soup.
Zuppa Toscana Soup Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need to make this hearty homemade soup.
- Mild Italian sausage – provides the primary savory flavor and meaty texture
- Russet Potatoes – adds heartiness and helps thicken the soup naturally
- White onion – creates a flavor foundation and adds natural sweetness
- Chicken Broth – forms the soup base and adds depth. Low-sodium broth is recommended
- Water – helps achieve the perfect consistency
- Garlic cloves – adds aromatic depth and traditional Italian flavor
- Slices of bacon or Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits – contributes smokiness and rich umami flavor
- Kosher salt – enhances all flavors
- Ground black pepper – adds subtle heat and depth
- Fresh kale – adds nutrition, color, and slight bitterness
- Heavy cream – creates the signature creamy texture
Nutritional information can be found on the recipe card below.
How to Make Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
- Place the sausages in a baking pan—brown sausage by roasting at 300°F for 30 minutes or until cooked through.
- Drain sausages on paper towels to absorb the excess grease and cut the links into slices.
- Place the potatoes, onions, chicken broth, water, and garlic in a large pot or large Dutch oven and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are fork-tender.
- Add the sausage, bacon, salt, and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Turn the heat to low. Add kale and cream and stir to combine.
- Add more water if necessary for desired consistency.
- Heat thoroughly and serve.
Pro Tips and Common Questions
Ingredient Substitutions
- Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes can replace Russet
- Sausage: Spicy Italian sausage for extra heat
- Kale: Spinach or Swiss chard work well
- Heavy Cream: Half-and-half for a lighter version
Make It Your Own
This recipe is incredibly versatile. Try these variations:
- Add mushrooms for extra earthiness
- Include cannellini beans for more protein
- Use turkey sausage for a lighter version
- Add a splash of white wine for depth
Troubleshooting Tips
- Soup too thick? Add water or broth gradually
- Soup too thin? Simmer longer or add more potatoes
- Too mild? Add red pepper flakes or use spicy sausage
- Potatoes not cooking evenly? Cut them into uniform sizes
Cooking and Serving Suggestions for the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe
- Use a food chopper. The time required to make this recipe revolves around cutting the vegetables. Save time and get perfectly diced onions and sliced potatoes with an inexpensive and indispensable food chopper. These inexpensive food prep tools are a must-have time-saver in any kitchen.
- Serve with warm slices of Tuscan bread to make Zuppa Toscana a simple supper. Tuscan bread is unique because it is baked without salt. Some people say there is no salt in bread from the region because the stubborn residents refused to pay high salt taxes during the Middle Ages. Other people think saltless bread pairs well with the traditionally heavy and salty local food. Either way, Tuscan bread goes great with this soup.
- Top each bowl with cheese and a splash of olive oil. A tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil on top of your soup just before serving helps provide a luscious mouthfeel. A little grated Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese on top helps balance the soup’s richness.
Storage & Reheating Instructions
- Freezing: Freezes well in airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator before reheating.
- Refrigerator Storage: Store leftover soup in airtight container for up to 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Like many soups, this tastes better the next day.
- Reheating Method: Reheat on stovetop over low to medium heat for even warming. Avoid microwave as it can cause uneven heating and texture issues.
Love Olive Garden? Try these copycat recipes!
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- Olive Garden Spinach Dip
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- Seafood Alfredo
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Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana – Easy Copycat Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage links
- 1 pound russet potatoes peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced 1/4-inch thick
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 29 ounces chicken broth (2 cans)
- 1 quart water
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped slices of bacon or Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits(1/2 can)
- kosher salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Place the sausages in a baking pan and roast for about 30 minutes or until cooked through. Drain sausages on paper towels and cut into slices.
- If you are using fresh bacon slices, saute bacon in a small skillet until the bacon has browned.
- Place the potatoes, onions, chicken broth, water, and garlic in a pot and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.
- Add the sausage, bacon, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Turn the heat to low. Add kale and cream. Stir to combine.
- Add more water, if necessary for desired consistency.
- Heat thoroughly and serve.
I omitted the bacon, changed the chicken broth to vegetable broth, and used Morningstar’s Italian Sausage to make this vegetarian style – and it still tasted just like the soup at olive garden! It was so good, thank you so much!
I use Goya pork flavoring packets instead of cream, leave out the bacon, and use red potatoes instead of russets and it tastes just as good with less calories.
I loved the soup in the restaurant and from this recipe. I really find the thumbnail pics a help too.
This is a great recipe, my husband asks me to make it all the time now! The only thing I do differently is instead of baking the sausage I remove the casing and brown it in a skillet, it gives it more of a ground beef texture, more like what I’ve seen at Olive Garden.
This is one of my favorite soups! So thrilled to have found this recipe of yours…I’ll be making it the very next cool day that we have. (And in Minnesota, that could be tomorrow – ha!)
This soup is excellent; I still use bacon because that was the original recipe I found years ago on Copycat. I am always amazed that people say they want a specific recipe because they love it – BUT, look for ways to change it or substitute ingredients.
I have found that recipes change from time to time at a restaurant. Sometimes food costs are the reason. Sometimes restaurants want to reduce the costs on their dishes and may remove or substitute ingredients over time.
So, I am attempting to make this for the first time but with a few changes…half and half and turkey sausage to make it healthier and adding then making some without the kale for my husband…wish me luck, i’ll let u know how it turns out!
where can i find kale or swiss chard
You can find this in most grocery stores in the produce department.
As I mentioned on your FB Page YOU have WON my Heart! This is my all time favorite dish! Thanks for what you are sharing with us!
I feel so honored!
sausage, sliced potatoes and kale
cream, bacon, onions, garlic and crushed red pepper.
Straight from the OG product hand book 🙂
My daughter and I ate at the Olive Garden in Chillicothe, Ohio recently on our “Girls Day” out. I had this soup and will say that it came with the ground sausage, not sliced. Seems like it must vary from location to location. I think the sliced would be nice for the men because the ground meat is more “feminine” . But WOW was it good! I’m going to make this recipe this week. Thank you!!!!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I’ve been thinking about doing something new for my kids this week, and I’m going to make this soup. I’m sure they’ll like it 🙂
I was wondering if it works with cauliflower, can it works will broccoli too?
I think broccoli, while it would work would taste very different than the way the soup really tastes at the restaurant.
I use ground hot Italian sauage sothe meat is distributed throughout the soup. Great recipe. I felt like an OG chef straight out of Tuscany!
I add a few crushed hot pepper flakes. Gives the soup a little kick
not a fan of onions but love this soup. i have never noticed onions in there? is onion salt an option?
If you really dislike onions that much, I would just omit them. You could use a little onion salt.
I made this recipe and used turkey sausage (spicey) and a packet of dry ranch dressing mix instead of the heavy cream…..cuts down on fat and calories and still tastes the same.
Yum! My daughter made this last night after a day of skiing and snowboarding. It is quick, hearty and delicious! Like another person suggested, she used the hot Italian sausage for the added kick and sauted it before adding it to the soup-nice chunks that the younger members of the family could avoid if they didn’t like spicy. Thanks so much!
Excellent! Tastes just like, if not better than, the OG soup.
I also added red pepper flakes just because I do that just about every time I cook sausage or ground beef.
I wasn’t sure what 2 cans meant because broth comes in large and small cans so I just used the carton of broth and less water.
Why http://google.com better http://yahoo.com?
Do you have to use heavy cream or can you use 1/2 and 1/2 with some milk for heart healthy
You can try it, and let us know the results. My recipes are developed on what simulates the restaurant’s recipe the closest. The most I will personally recommend is using all half and half. Anything beyond that I personally won’t make any claims on.