Zuppa de Anna

Have you ever had the Zuppa Toscana soup from Olive Garden?  

This is SO. MUCH. BETTER!

You're welcome, in advance.

Since Cordova has neither an Olive Garden, nor any other chain restaurant so I decided to create this soup!  This wonderful creation was inspired by copycat recipes I found here!  Well, I should actually say this was inspired by my Full Circle ingredients and ended up containing more of them than I originally intended. Hey, when you're in the Last Frontier you improvise!

Let me introduce you to Zuppa de Anna!!

Excuse me... You're drooling...

You will need:

• 1 lb Italian sausage (I like HOT sausage so we used pre-cooked chicken sausage)
• 2 large russet baking potatoes, sliced in half, and then in 1/4 inch slices
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup bacon bits (or more)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups kale, chopped
• 1 package of mushrooms
• 2 stalks of leeks
• 2 (8 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 quart water
• 1 cup half in half 
• sauté pan, soup pot and pot for potatoes

 

Chop or slice sausage into small pieces

Brown sausage with onions, garlic & mushrooms in your soup pot.

 

 

 

Add chicken broth and water to  soup pot and stir. 

 

Place potatoes in a separate pot and boil until done.  For gosh sakes season the poor buggers!

 

 

Sauté bacon until crispy- set aside.

  

 

Sweat the leeks like a teenager trying for first base- oh, you didn't sweat?  Liar If you're a little rusty on your leek preparation, look no further!  Don't forget to sweat them in bacon, um yum!

 

Add bacon & cooked potatoes to soup pot and simmer for 10 min

 

 

Turn heat to low and add kale & half/half (way less calories than cream!)

 

Heat through and devour!

 

 

 *Warning, this makes a LOT so be prepared to share/freeze or eat for days!*

 

Just another recipe brought to you semi-homemade with Annalee!

 

Until next time...