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 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 like to boil the potatoes separately (in a different batch of water) drain them and add them to the soup later. That makes it more creamy, and less starchy. If you like it thicker, though – as some others are saying, cook them in the broth.
ALSO. This makes a great slow cooker recipe. Throw everything in in the morning (except for the kale and cream) and let it cook. Throw the kale and cream in a few minutes before serving and voila.
What about freezing some? Is that Okay to do?
You could give it a try. I have never personally frozen it. I rarely have enough left over to freeze.
This is an awesome soup! I’m diabetic, so I can’t have too many carbs, so I add some cauliflower and put in less potatoes, and I add carrots. It’s awesome! 😀 And we do use the Spinach instead of Kale.
How do you get the recipes?
That’s funny cnsdigital2, my friend is a manager at OG and this is exactly the recipe! LOL The only thing missing is crushed red pepper flakes!
If you live near a Trader Joe’s then try using their sweet Italian style chicken sausage. I also add extra potatoes and kale. We absolutely LOVE this soup when we make it!!!
I didn’t like Olive Gardens version 😉
Excellent soup
The copycat recipe I have also calls for 1.5 tsp crushed red pepper flakes – gives it just a touch of spicy, which I love. And I think it tastes JUST like the originial
Keep in mind much of the sausage comes with red pepper flakes in it already, make sure you don’t add too much extra heat.
I made this soup for my family and they loved it. Thank you so very much! You were very right about the whipping cream and reheating. Even though I’m still very young, I know a good recipe when i see one. I give it five stars. 😉
Why not use Hot Italian sausage, and leave out the red pepper flakes? Isn’t that about the same thing?
I like being able to control the amount of heat, by using the red pepper flakes I feel like I can do that better.
I like being able to control the amount of heat, by using the red pepper flakes I feel like I can do that better.
If I make it for folks who like spicy, I do exactly as you suggest, but many times we have folks who are not into hot and spicy, so the “sweet” Italian sausage and passing around the red pepper works better. We don’t want anyone who passes on the soup, because it is too spicy for them!
Your soup looks better than OG’s. I love lots of kale.
Can you use a lactose free milk instead of the heavy cream? I have a couple of family members that have the heavy cream.
I am sure you can give it a try. I have not tried the recipe this way.
You could try experimenting with soy. You can get soy milk and reduce in a sauce pan so that it thickens and becomes the consistency of cream. Just be sure to get plain and unsweetened.
Wow! forget the soup. The cook is beautiful!
Perfect recipe however, DO NOT add any water to it!!
I made this soup yesterday and my husband absolutely loved it! He had to stop at bowl #2 even though he said he wanted more! The recipe was soooo simple to follow. The only difference when I made it was that I used spinach in place of the kale (I couldn’t find any in my small town). Otherwise, perfect!
I’ve made this soup before and absolutely LOVED it.
Made it tonight, and it tasted like watered down milk. 🙁 Extremely disappointed and don’t know what the heck I did wrong! 🙁
I am sorry this didn’t work well for you tonight. Did you use milk? Did you substitute ingredients?
Loved the soup however we use baby spinach in place of the stronger chard/kale. It is a gentler taste! Our daughter-in-law in Italy fixed it for us and we have been making it ever since then. Somerset, IN
I was actually looking for this soup, because I heard it was a way to add kale into my diet, LOL!!! But with that, I understand not wanting such a strong taste. What if you mixed half baby spinach, half kale? That way the benefits of kale are still there; just not so much strong taste. (Does anyone agree? I haven’t tried this yet.)
I was actually looking for this soup, because I heard it was a way to add kale into my diet, LOL!!! But with that, I understand not wanting such a strong taste. What if you mixed half baby spinach, half kale? That way the benefits of kale are still there; just not so much strong taste. (Does anyone agree? I haven’t tried this yet.)
So you can do what you prefer, but the kale will hold up better in the heat if you want to reheat it.
Loved the soup however we use baby spinach in place of the stronger chard/kale. It is a gentler taste! Our daughter-in-law in Italy fixed it for us and we have been making it ever since then. Somerset, IN
You can freeze this soup. I freeze in individual servings for my parents and have them add the cream and kale (or not) when they reheat it. Putting the cream in before you freeze will cause the texture to change and it will separate.
Inside information: OG browns the sausage with red pepper. It’s a fact!