tastyDeLites

Recipe: Zuppa Toscana (like the one at Olive Garden!)

Ingredients: Italian sausage, red pepper flakes, bacon, onion, garlic, chicken broth, potatoes, heavy cream, spinach

Taste: It tasted pretty close to the version at Olive Garden! Kinda spicy too.  I’m not sure if the bacon was really necessary- I guess it adds some flavor but I don’t remember there being bacon in Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana.  Overall the soup was a pain to make.

Texture: I have to experiment with how small or large to make the ingredients.  The onions and garlic came out fine even though I didn’t cut them as small as the recipe said to.  The potatoes were supposed to be “sliced thin”- whatever that means.  I sliced them into thin little squares but I thought that was a weird shape for potato pieces.  I tore up the spinach but it was still too large.  And I removed the sausage from the casings and tried to break it up but I left a few chunks thinking they would crumble down- that didn’t happen.  I like the sausage evenly crumbled so next time I’ll chop it a little more.  It also says to add the spinach right before you serve, so I only added a little.  I’ll add more as I reheat this soup over the next few weeks.

Portion: This recipe makes enough for “6”.  Six people eating this as their main course, maybe.  I had two bowls and there were probably at least 8 bowls left.

Overall Rating: 8/10