Zuppa toscana

Zuppa toscana: Tuscan in name

Zuppa toscana means simply "Tuscan soup", and in Tuscany it could be any of a dozen bread and bean soups. The creamy soup of crumbled Italian sausage, sliced potatoes and kale that Americans know by the name is an Italian-American restaurant dish, made famous by Olive Garden. This is our own home version of that soup, made in under an hour with half the cream; we have no connection to Olive Garden. For a vegetable soup that Italians really do make at home, Tuscans included, try our minestrone.

The Italian sausage for zuppa toscana

Use bulk Italian sausage, or links with the casings slit and pulled off. Mild Italian sausage is seasoned with fennel and garlic; hot has red pepper flakes as well, and gives the soup its warmth without any extra spice. Use hot sausage and leave out the red pepper flakes, or mild with them, as you like. Brown it well, in small pieces, so it has crisp edges: the browned bits on the bottom of the pot flavor the whole broth once the liquid goes in.

Pork sausage gives off a lot of fat. Spoon out all but a tablespoon before you add the onion. Chicken or turkey Italian sausage is far leaner and works just as well; it needs 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pot, since it gives off almost no fat of its own.

Potatoes and kale

Russets are the right potato here. Sliced thin, about 1/4 inch, they cook in 12 to 15 minutes and release some starch into the broth, which thickens it slightly. Yukon Golds hold their shape better but leave the broth thinner. Slice them evenly so they all finish at once, and stop cooking as soon as a knife slides through: overcooked, the slices break up.

Lacinato kale, also sold as Tuscan or dinosaur kale, is flatter and more tender, and cooks in about 3 minutes. Curly kale is more common in stores and works the same way, but needs a minute or two longer. Pull the leaves off the tough stems and tear them into bite-size pieces. Spinach can replace the kale; stir it in at the very end, off the heat.

Slow cooker zuppa toscana

Brown the sausage with the onion, garlic and pepper flakes in a skillet first and drain the fat. Put it in a 6-quart slow cooker with the broth, potatoes, salt and pepper and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours or on high for 2 to 3, until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the kale for the last 20 minutes on high, then the cream and milk, and heat through for 10 minutes. Added at the start, the kale goes olive drab and the milk can curdle.

Instant Pot zuppa toscana

Brown the sausage and onion on Sauté, then spoon off the fat. Add the garlic and pepper flakes for a minute, pour in the broth and scrape the bottom well. Add the potatoes, lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 4 minutes, with a quick release. Switch back to Sauté, stir in the kale for 2 to 3 minutes, then the cream and milk.

Healthy zuppa toscana

The restaurant soup is rich; a bowl of this one is about 410 kcal. To make it lighter:

• Use chicken or turkey Italian sausage. It saves about 80 kcal a bowl and a large share of the fat.
• Swap the cream for milk. Use a full cup of whole milk instead of the cream and milk. It is a thinner soup, but still creamy, and saves about 55 kcal a bowl.
• Replace half the potatoes with cauliflower. Cut it into small florets and add it with the potatoes. It lowers the carbohydrate and adds fiber.

With lean sausage and milk instead of cream, the soup comes to about 275 kcal a bowl, with almost the same protein.

Whole30 and dairy-free zuppa toscana

Replace the cream and milk with 3/4 cup of canned full-fat coconut milk, and leave off the Parmesan. The coconut is faint once it is in the broth with sausage and garlic. For Whole30, check the sausage label, since many contain sugar, and use a broth without added sugar or additives. With cauliflower in place of all the potatoes, the soup is also low-carb.

Keeping it

Three to four days in the fridge. Reheat it gently without boiling, so the cream does not separate. It does not freeze well with the potatoes and cream in; to freeze it, ladle out the sausage-and-broth base you want to keep before adding the potatoes, and add potatoes, kale and cream when you reheat it.

What it is worth nutritionally

A bowl of about 2 cups, with Parmesan, has about 410 kcal, with 19 g of protein, 25 g of fat and 27 g of carbohydrate. The sausage brings most of the protein and fat, and also most of the sodium, so use low-sodium broth and add salt only at the end. The kale is the reason to go heavy on it: it is one of the richest sources of vitamin K, and a good source of vitamin C. For the same potatoes and broth in a soup thickened with mashed potato rather than cream, see our potato soup.