This heavenly Zuppa Toscana (or as we call it Tuscan Soup) is simple to make BUT the best news is, it tastes like you spent hours making it!
It’s that time of year. What time you ask? Right after the holidays.
I ate my weight in cheese, bread, chocolate, chips, dips, meat… well, I ate a LOT!
Now it’s time to dial back and reassess our nutrition going forward – heavy on the assess if you follow me 😉
So what better way to start down the path of finding my waistline again than by diving into a bowl of soup?!
No, this isn’t a bowl of plain broth. We don’t resort to rice crackers and water when we’ve over-indulged. That’s not how we roll. We just rein in our desire for holiday-type eats and go back to eating portioned, good tasting, healthy food that isn’t served in large bowls or troughs…
Zuppa Toscana pairs great with my homemade bread and a simple green salad! Ok, ok… you know me… and a nice glass of red wine.
Filling. Satisfying and as my Granddaughter likes to say: Delizioso!
Here’s a step by step video if you’d like to make it along with me. No rice crackers to be seen anywhere, promise!
One tip: be sure to remove that nasty rib on the kale. It has a terrible mouth feel and you’ll be glad you took the few moments it takes to remove it.
Now go make a pot of this heavenly soup and see if you can get your family to say: Delizioso!
A hearty, comfort style soup with sausage, potatoes and kale.
- 3 strips thick cut bacon – chopped
- 2 lbs Italian sausage – prefer less meat? Use 1lb
- 1 large onion – chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 5 cloves garlic – minced
- 4-6 medium russet or idaho potatoes – 1/4 dice
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 small bunch kale – remove ribs before chopping into large bits
- 1.5 cups heavy cream or use half and half – can be reduced all the way down to 1/2 cup. My family just likes their cream!
- salt – to taste
- *Optional red pepper flakes – to taste
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Turn the Instant Pot on to Sauté mode and add your chopped bacon. Cook until bacon is done then remove from the pot and set aside. Leave bacon fat in the pot.
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Add the Italian sausage and brown it. Be sure to stir!
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When your sausage is browned, remove it and assess the amount of fat you have in the pot and if you feel there is too much remove all but 2 teaspoons of it. I don't bother with this step but if you're counting calories you can make an adjustment here.
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Add in your chopped onions and oregano. Stir and cook until the onions are translucent.
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Add garlic and stir.
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Pour in the broth. This is the time to give the pot a good stir, being sure that you scrape the bottom to get all those caramelized bits of goodness up and into your broth! This is called deglazing.
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Cancel the Sauté mode.
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Add the potatoes, bacon and sausage back in. Be sure your IP isn't over the maximum fill line.
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Close and lock the lid. Be sure your knob is set to Sealing.
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Select Manual setting. Adjust the pressure to High, and set cook time for 5 minutes.
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Allow a 10 minute Natural Pressure Release (NPR) after cooking ends. Then, using a wooden spoon, do a Quick Release to relieve the last of the steam. When the pin has dropped, open the lid.
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Stir in your chopped kale. Put the lid back on and wait 5 minutes for the kale to soften.
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Open the lid and pour in your cream or half and half:
You can lower the amount of heavy cream or half and half to 1 cup or if you're really counting calories you can use whole milk. Play with the amounts and see what suits your taste.
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Add salt and optional red pepper flakes to taste.
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This soup freezes well! Omit the kale and cream when making the recipe. When it's time to reheat add the kale and cream at that time.
What’s your favorite go to soup?
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