Zuppa Toscana is a creamy and bold soup with sausage, kale, and potatoes. It's so filling and delicious, and is perfect for the colder months!
If you love soup like zuppa toscana, you'll love some of our other favorite soups like, Pasta Fagioli with Spinach, Italian Wedding Soup, and Classic Italian Minestrone.
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Why this Recipe Works for our Family
To be perfectly honest, I didn't know what Zuppa Toscana was when Marisa and I started thinking about this soup. I said, "what about a kale, sausage, and potato soup?" Upon doing some research, I found out this was a classic Italian soup.
Italian tradition is something Italians take seriously. Some might say they take it too seriously. Recipes of old were created because of a limitation of ingredients. A lot of people ask me why I put zucchini in my pasta fagioli. The answer is because I can.
That's how my mom always cooked. You don't waste food. Any extra vegetables I have at the end of the week, I turn into soup on Saturday morning. Of course, this is within reason.
Ingredient Notes
Potatoes. Feel free to substitute red potatoes if you don't have baby dutch yellow potatoes.
Beans. I prefer cannellini beans in soup because they don't get as mushy but you can substitute white northern beans.
Sausage. I like a mild Italian sausage. Typically I take ground pork and just mix it with salt, sugar, parsley, garlic, fennel, and a dash of nutmeg.
Step-by-Step Directions
Traditionally, zuppa toscana is made with bacon. Bacon is very overpowering. I hate the texture of it, the way it takes over the whole dish. I leave out bacon unless I'm having it on a bacon, egg, and cheese.
Brown the Sausage
To brown the sausage, I like to take it out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes before I'm going to cook it. The closer the sausage is to room temperature, the less it will cool the pan you are cooking it in. As soon as the pan cools too much, the sausage will steam, and not brown.
Start with a small amount of olive oil in the dutch oven and bring it to medium-high heat. Drop the sausage in the pot and let it sit until it develops a crust. Resist the urge to stir often. Flip the ground sausage and let the other side brown. Then remove the sausage from the dutch oven and set aside.
Sauteing the Vegetables
With the remaining oil in the pan, add onions and lower the heat to medium. Saute the onions for a few minutes and then add the carrots. Saute until the onions are translucent. Then stir in the garlic and saute for 1-2 more minutes.
Add the broth and the potatoes to the pot and raise the heat to medium-high and bring the broth to a simmer. Once it is simmering add the sausage, seasonings, and beans and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Wilting the Kale
Once the potatoes have softened, add the chopped kale on top of the soup and cover the pot for 3 minutes. When you remove the cover the kale should be wilted. Stir throughout the soup.
Remove the soup from the stovetop and add the heavy cream. Stir well.
Serving this Dish
Serve with crusty Italian bread and parmesan cheese. This soup is best served on day two. I don't love recipes like that but this recipe will thicken up from the starch and the potatoes and the texture improves after it has sat overnight. The other option is to allow the soup to sit on low heat on the stove all day to thicken up.
Pro-tips
- When you sear the sausage, let it sit for a few moments without stirring. This will let a browning develop on the meat!
- Test your potatoes with a knife to see if they're softened at around the 15-minute mark. Some will soften faster than others depending on the size.
FAQs
It means Tuscan Soup. Sometimes it's called bread soup or minestra di panne. It's usually made with all the veggies above and zucchini along with beans, sausage and potatoes.
No, the soup will still be tasty without it. It just won't be, well, as creamy.
What to do with Leftovers
Enjoy the next day as leftovers and I promise you won't be disappointed. Zuppa toscana is a great meal for the whole family. It's one of the few ways that I will touch kale. Let's be honest, it is not anyone's favorite vegetable. For me, half the problem with kale is the texture. The soup softens it up and makes it less bitter.
Nobody likes it when you say you won't even know it's in there. And I won't say that because there is definitely a ton of kale in there. But it is definitely a way that you can actually enjoy the kale, and not feel like you're eating dry leaves!
Store in the fridge for up to 4 days and reheat on the stovetop for best results. I personally don't recommend freezing this soup because the potatoes become mush.
Video Recipe
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📖 Recipe
Zuppa Toscana
Equipment
- 1 Large Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs sweet Italian sausage
- 3 carrots, sliced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb baby dutch yellow potatoes
- 2 heads tuscan kale, chopped
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Bring a large dutch oven to medium-high heat. Remove the sausage from the casing and brown the sausage. Move the sausage as little as possible to decrease steaming. Once the sausage is browned, remove it from the pot.
- Lower the heat to medium and saute onions in the fat from the sausage for 5 minutes and then add the carrots. Stir until the onions are translucent and the carrots are softened. Season with some salt and pepper. Add garlic and saute until garlic is fragrant. Then add the broth and bring it to a boil.
- Once the broth is boiling, add oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, and rosemary. Stir well then add the potatoes and return to a simmer. Add in the sausage and the beans after about 10 minutes and finish simmering until the potatoes are softened. Add the kale on top and cover. The kale will wilt in about 3 minutes, then stir the kale into the broth.
- Stir in the heavy cream and serve with crusty Italian bread and parmesan cheese!
Notes
- When you sear the sausage, let it sit for a few moments without stirring. This will let a browning develop on the meat!
- Test your potatoes with a knife to see if they're softened at around the 15-minute mark. Some will soften faster than others depending on the size.
Amie
Wow, superb blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your web
site is excellent, let alone the content!
Angelina Marie Padilla
made this tonight... it was fantastico!!
thank you Vinny,
Angelina