This soup is like the kind you'd get from the Olive Garden, but in my personal opinion, it's WAY better. We prefer chunky soup in our house, meaning more of the good stuff, (like bacon!) less of the liquid.
So here is a random story that kind of ties into this soup: growing up, and especially after reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, I wasn't a huge fan of sausage. I thought it was gross. Fast forward a bunch of years and I got engaged to a "meat conoscere" who had just bought half a pig right before we got married and made about 25 lbs of sausage himself. I told him that he would be eating all that meat himself, because I hated sausage. ...until I tried it. It was delicious! For the first time in my life I was loving pork (except for bacon, I had always been a fan of bacon!) Life was great...until the meat was gone. Back to the store bought stuff? No thank you. Well, since my husband is into animal production he has toured quite a few processing plants, and so we found a brand of meat that we could not only trust, but it tastes the closest to homemade sausage. So if you are wondering what is a good brand of sausage to buy, (at least in the North West part of the country) I highly recommend Falls Brand.
Italian Potato Soup, or Zuppa Toscana. or Wow this soup is delicious!
-1 lb Plain Sausage + 1 Tbsp italian seasoning + 1 tsp garlic powder + 1 tsp onion powder
-1 lb Bacon
-2 Medium onions, diced
-1 1/2 Tbsp finely minced garlic
-32 oz chicken broth
-1 Tbsp italian seasoning
-6 to 8 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
-1 to 1 1/2 C cream
-1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped
-salt and pepper, to taste
-mix together the sausage with the seasonings and brown in a saucepan. (you could always just use Italian Sausage, but this method is preferred by my taste testers, aka the husband and kids)
-Cook the bacon in a skillet until crispy, roughly chop into pieces when it has cooled sufficiently. (Last time I made this soup I used Hickory Smoked bacon and it was fantastic, but then again, I do LOVE smoky flavors)
-After the sausage has browned drain of the extra fat and pat the sausage with a paper towel to soak up extra grease, do the same with the bacon.
-in a large soup pot, saute your onions, garlic and italian seasoning.
-Add your chicken broth and the meat.
-Over medium heat, add your potatoes and cream and simmer until the potatoes have softened a bit.
-add the chopped kale and continue to simmer until the kale is softened and the potatoes are cooked through
-add salt and pepper to your personal taste.
-This soup tastes delicious with fresh baked bread sticks and if you have some fresh Parmesan around, it tastes amazing sprinkled on top.
