Soup
Zuppa Toscana
Sausage, potato and kale in a creamy broth. The one people order out and never make at home.
Zuppa Toscana is the soup people order at a restaurant, love, and then never attempt at home — because the ingredient list looks long and the broth looks like it took skill.
It didn't. It is sausage, bacon, potatoes and kale in a chicken broth with cream stirred in at the end. What makes it taste like the restaurant version is the amount of garlic, which most home recipes underdo badly. There are twelve grams in this packet, which is about ten cloves.
The cream goes in at the end, and it should be real cream from the carton. A cup costs about two dollars and it is the difference between good soup and the soup you remember.
Why you'll love it
It tastes like the restaurant.
Garlic, hot sausage and cream in the right proportions. That is the whole trick.
Feeds eight to ten.
One packet, one pot, and enough for lunch the next day.
Kale that actually stays green.
It goes in during the last twenty minutes, not the first hour.
The best thing you can sample.
A cup of this at a booth in October sells packets on its own.
What's already in the packet
The broth, the garlic and the Italian herbs are already measured. You bring the sausage, the potatoes and the cream.
Choose your setting
LOW · 6–7 hours
Low and slow gives collagen time to melt and flavors time to build. It is the setting this recipe was written for.
HIGH · 3–4 hours
For when you started late. It gets dinner done, but the texture is better on LOW.
Done at 160°F
Ground sausage minimum. The potatoes should crush against the side of the pot with a spoon at the same time.
You'll Need
- 1 lb Hot Italian sausage
- 6 oz Bacon, chopped
- 5 medium Russet potatoes, sliced thin
- 8 cups Water
- 1 packet Cook SLO Zuppa Toscana
- 1 bunch Kale, stripped and chopped
- 1 cup Heavy cream
Pick your protein
1 lb
Hot Italian sausage
1 lb
Mild Italian sausage
1 lb + 6 oz
Sausage and bacon
Chicken 165°F, ground sausage 160°F, beef cubes 190°F, cooked ham 140°F
Add vegetables
Diced onion (fresh or frozen) and sliced carrots (fresh or frozen) at the start, on the bottom; mushrooms at the start to melt into the sauce, or the last two hours to keep their shape; kale (fresh or frozen) and spinach (fresh or frozen) in the last twenty minutes; cannellini beans, canned at the start, or the last hour if you want them whole.
When to add what
| When | Add | Why |
|---|---|---|
| At the start, on the bottom | Diced onion (fresh or frozen)Sliced carrots (fresh or frozen) | Root vegetables cook slower than meat. They belong closest to the heat, and they hold the meat up out of the liquid. Cut everything an inch and a half or larger — smaller pieces disintegrate. |
| At the start, or the last two hours | Sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen) | Mushrooms are a choice. At the start they melt into the sauce and deepen it. In the last two hours they hold their shape and keep some bite. |
| Last 20 minutes | Kale (fresh or frozen)Spinach (fresh or frozen) | Spinach wilts in about five. A whole bag cooks down to roughly half a cup, so use more than looks reasonable. Frozen peas go grey and wrinkled if added earlier. |
| Canned beans, drained and rinsed | Cannellini beans, canned | At the start for chili and stews, where they take on the seasoning and a few break down to thicken the pot. In the last hour if you want them whole. |
Two ways to do this
If you're home
Follow the timing table above and add things when they're due.
If you're out all day
Put in at the start as normal: diced onion (fresh or frozen), sliced carrots (fresh or frozen), sliced mushrooms (fresh or frozen) and cannellini beans, canned. These need the full cook anyway.
Add kale (fresh or frozen) and spinach (fresh or frozen) when you walk in the door. Forty-five minutes to an hour on LOW is enough for all of it, and it will taste better than if it had cooked all day.
If you would rather not touch it at all, put everything in at the start and use frozen where you can. It will be softer than the timing above intends and the greens will lose their colour, but it will taste good and dinner is ready when you walk in.
Frozen is the better choice for a long day. Already cut, holds its shape better than fresh over eight or nine hours, and goes in straight from the bag with no thawing. Frozen diced onion and pepper strips remove the only real prep this recipe has.
Beans — use canned
Every recipe in this book that uses beans uses canned beans. Drain and rinse them, and they are ready to go. Do not substitute dry beans.
Canned beans are fully cooked during canning, so they are safe and they only need warming through. Dry red kidney beans are a different matter: raw, they contain a lectin called phytohaemagglutinin, and the FDA is explicit that a slow cooker does not get hot enough to destroy it. The toxin needs boiling at 212°F for at least ten minutes, and a crock pot on LOW often reaches only about 167°F — hot enough to soften the bean, not hot enough to make it safe. As few as four or five undercooked kidney beans can cause severe vomiting within a few hours. Canned beans have none of this problem.
| Canned beans | Drain and rinse | Rinsing removes the starchy canning liquid, which otherwise clouds a soup and dulls the flavour. |
| When to add them | Start, or the last hour | At the start for chili and stews — they take on the seasoning and a few break down, which thickens the pot. In the last hour if you want them to hold their shape. |
| Canned baked or refried beans | Last 30 minutes | Already sweetened or seasoned. Added early they scorch against the crock wall. |
| Dry beans of any kind | Not in this book | If you want the savings, cook them fully on the stove first — soak five hours, drain, boil thirty minutes in fresh water — then use them in place of canned. Two cups cooked equals roughly one 15-ounce can. |
One 15-ounce can drained gives about one and a half cups of beans. Most recipes here want one or two cans.
Optional. A drained can of cannellini beans in the last hour makes it more Tuscan and stretches the pot to twelve servings. Leave them out and nothing is missing.
Before anything goes in the pot
- 1
Brown the ground meat first
Raw sausage clumps the same way, and you want the rendered fat in the broth. Brown it and pour off most of the fat.
- 2
Deglaze the pan and pour it in
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it wastes half the benefit of browning. Most of the flavour you just made is stuck to the pan. Pour a cup of the recipe's water into the hot empty pan, scrape everything loose with a wooden spoon while it bubbles, and pour that into the crock pot. Count it toward the total liquid.
- 3
Whisk the packet into the water before it goes in
Do not sprinkle dry powder onto liquid in the pot. Put the 8 cups in a jug, add the packet, whisk until there are no lumps, then pour it over. Cheese and cream powders dissolve properly this way and the sauce comes out smooth instead of grainy.
- 4
Cook the bacon separately
Bacon in a slow cooker goes soft and grey. Crisp it in a pan or on a sheet in the oven while the pot finishes, then crumble it in at the end.
These happen outside the crock pot, before it's switched on.
Tonight's Plan
- 1
Put the sausage and sliced potatoes in the crock pot.
Potatoes on the bottom, sausage over them.
- 2
Pour in the 8 cups of whisked liquid and stir once.
You dissolved the packet in the water already, so there is no powder to work in and no risk of lumps. One stir to settle everything.
- 3
Put the lid on.
Six to seven hours on LOW. There is nothing to check.
When about 30 minutes are left
Creamy upgrade
Stir in the kale and let it wilt, about 5 minutes.
It will look like far too much. It won't be.
Turn the heat off, stir in the cream, and serve.
Off the heat. Cream added to a boiling pot can separate.
Stirring
Leave the lid on
Nothing in this one settles or scorches, and there is plenty of liquid moving. Every lift of the lid drops the temperature ten to fifteen degrees and costs about twenty minutes. There is nothing to check.
Swaps and add-ins
Add the bacon.
Cooked and crumbled, stirred in at the end. Traditional and worth the extra pan.
Use spinach instead of kale.
Milder and it wilts faster. Add it in the last three minutes.
Make it hotter.
Extra red pepper flakes at the end, not the start.
Add cannellini beans.
A drained can in the last hour. More Tuscan and it stretches the pot further.
Skip the potatoes.
Use gnocchi instead, stirred in for the last fifteen minutes.
Tips for success
- Slice the potatoes thin. Quarter-inch coins. Thick chunks stay firm in the middle while the outside falls apart.
- Cream off the heat, always. A boiling pot will split it. Turn the cooker off, wait a minute, then stir it in.
- Hot sausage, not mild. The heat is structural. Mild sausage makes a soup that tastes like it is missing something.
- Drop in a liner before anything else. Smooth it against the sides and fold the edges over the rim. When you're done, lift it out and throw it away — the crock never needs scrubbing.
Finish it right
Grated Parmesan at the table.
Freshly grated, generously. It melts into the broth and pulls everything together.
Cracked black pepper.
This soup should be peppery. Fresh pepper on top, not just what cooked in.
Crusty bread for dipping.
Not a garnish. Half the reason to make it.
Serve it over
Tomorrow night
It is better on day two.
The garlic settles and the broth deepens. Reheat gently.
Thin it into a lighter soup.
Add a cup of water and it stretches to twelve servings.
Over gnocchi.
Spoon the soup over cooked gnocchi for something closer to a stew.
Baked potato topping.
Split a hot potato and spoon it over. Very good.
Keeping it
Fridge
Airtight, up to 4 days. Better on day two.
Freezer
Not ideal. Potatoes go grainy and cream can separate on thaw.
Reheating
Low and gentle. Never boil it once the cream is in.
Questions people ask
Recipe card
Zuppa Toscana
You'll Need
- 1 lb Hot Italian sausage
- 6 oz Bacon, chopped
- 5 medium Russet potatoes, sliced thin
- 8 cups Water
- 1 packet Cook SLO Zuppa Toscana
- 1 bunch Kale, stripped and chopped
- 1 cup Heavy cream
Tonight's Plan
- Put the sausage and sliced potatoes in the crock pot.
- Pour in the 8 cups of whisked liquid and stir once.
- Put the lid on.
Contains milk.
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