Zuppa Toscana

I got my car back, so now I can make soup.

I pulled this recipe off of allrecipes.com because I was feeling like eating the soup from, forgive me, Olive Garden. I haven't been there in years. I haven't had the soup in forever. (Can we call it a PMS moment?)

Anyhow, after reviewing a few recipes, I settled on this one. The recipe below is an adaptation. Followed by notes and more adaptations. Because I'm like that.

Zuppa Toscana
Makes 2 quarts (about 6 servings)

1 pound hot bulk sausage
6 slices bacon
3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons chicken soup base
6 cups water
1 pound potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
3-6 cups kale - washed, de-stemmed, and chopped
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup hard cheese

1. Heat oven to 400°. Place bacon in a single layer on a half-sheet pan and bake 10-20 minutes, turning pan around half way through baking.
   
2. Crumble bulk sausage into a large pot and cook until done. Drain and set aside.
3. In the same pot, cook onions until translucent (3-4 minutes); add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add chicken soup base, water, and potatoes, simmer, covered, 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, crumble bacon and blot excess oil from sausage.
   
5. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer 5-10 minutes (until greens are wilted) and serve with grated hard cheese on top.

Sausage note:
Using the "hot" sausage didn't make the soup overwhelmingly hot, but I think I would have missed the heat had I gone with "regular" sausage. You can effectively use "regular" sausage with 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper if "hot" sausage is not available.

Bacon note:
I originally thought that bacon would be mandatory in this recipe. I wasn't sure I'd miss it if it weren't there. Well, I missed it. Use the bacon.

Salt note:
The first time I made this, the recipe called for 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons chicken soup base. That's a salt lick there, especially with the sausage AND the bacon contributing more than their share. I'll give you that neither my potatoes nor kale were seasoned, but it still came out too salty. And because it came out thicker than I thought it should have, I recommend 6 cups water. If your soup base is salty (Knorr is very salty, Better than Bullion less so), reduce the amount of soup base to 1 tablespoon; you can always add it in at the end.

Potato note:
I used russets and left the skin on. Do what you like.

Kale note:
I used 3 cups of washed and chopped fresh kale (the original recipe called for 2 cups), but wish I would have thrown in the rest of the bunch (about 6 cups total). Greens are good for you dammit. Eat them. And, boy howdy, is this a fine way to eat them.

Cream note:
Whipping cream is nice, but I thought I could have gotten away with half & half. Well, after making it the second time, use the whipping cream.

Cheese note:
I used some hard cheese that I had in my refrigerator (Shannon cow aged 3 years something). Use romano, parmesan, or whatever you like. I'm not picky, and I don't think you should be either.

Cost:
$1.66 Bulk Sausage (on sale)
$2.00 Bacon (for 1/2 pound)
$1.00 Onion
$0.30 Garlic
$0.75 Chicken soup base (how do you divide this cost, really?)
$0.38 Potatoes (on sale)
$2.99 Kale (I must say, I was surprised to see this was so expensive)
$0.50 Whipping cream
$1.00 Hard cheese (2 ounces)

Total: $10.58 (or 6 servings at $1.76 each)