I'm on a roll, don't judge me!

Since we're talking about restaurant foods ...I have to also give you the home version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana.

I'm sure you've had it. It's like a simplified Italian wedding soup.  I actually learned how to make this, though I can't find the original recipe we used, back in San Luis Obispo.  You only need a few things!

1)One package of hot Italian sausage (and red chili flakes, if you love things extra spicy like I do)
2)one bunch of kale
3)one yellow onion
4)up to one pint of heavy whipping cream
5) six slices of bacon
Hey, I never said this was a healthy soup.
6) three or four medium-large white potatoes
7)two cans of chicken stock

And garlic! I totally forgot to get new garlic, so I just eyeballed a bit of garlic powder. But, if you have it, three cloves of garlic--minced.

And a large soup pot, of course.

Start out by dumping your sausage and diced up bacon to cook up in the pot. You DO NOT need any oil--sausage and bacon have plenty of fat to keep from sticking. If you want, you can even drain it after cooking before moving on. Around halfway cooked, I like to break the sausage up into very small clumps. Add your diced onion and minced garlic and give that a good stir. While that's blends together, start cutting up your potatoes. Keep in mind more surface area reduces cook time. Since Brun and I were super hungry, I halved the potatoes, diced them (think chip slices), then cut those in thirds. Add the chicken stock and one cup of water when you're half way through cutting the potatoes. Turn up the heat so your pot is heading for a nice boil. Add the potatoes and let those cook. When they look like they're almost done, pour in your cream and tear up the kale into manageable pieces (they'll cook down like spinach, but not so wilt-y). Add some cracked pepper and you are good to go. I've found sourdough or the rosemary-potato bread you can get at the store go really well with this soup.

Eat up!