When Betty Keira mentioned how disgusting "soup with garlic" sounded (Sun and Candlelight) - I agreed (I think we were both trying to imagine garlic soup). But then I got to thinking - I actually love soup with garlic in it. I found this recipe for Zuppa Toscana online a couple of years ago. My son's wife liked it so much while eating at our house, she would always ask me to make it...so I walked her through it once (she's a natural in the kitchen) and now she's made it her own. When I told her I was going to post the recipe, she begged me to let her post first (which I did, so that I could steal her picture).
Zuppa Toscana
like Olive Garden's®
1 lb. spicy Italian sausage - crumbled (I prefer mild Italian sausage)
1/2 lb. smoked bacon - chopped
1 qt. water(2)
14.5 oz. cans (about 3 2/3 cups) chicken broth (I usually make my own broth with Better than Bouillon chicken base)
2 lg. russet potatoes - scrubbed clean, cubed
2 garlic cloves - peeled, crushed
1 med. onion - peeled, chopped
2 cups chopped kale
1 cup heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper - to taste
-In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside.
-In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown bacon; drain, set aside.
-Place water, broth, potatoes, garlic, and onion in a pot; simmer over medium heat until potatoes are tender.
-Add sausage and bacon to pot; simmer for 10 minutes.
-Add kale and cream to pot; season with salt and pepper; heat through.
This is really an easy soup to make, and if you have a big enough pot, it's just about as easy to
make a double batch - which means leftovers!! Zuppa Toscana freezes just fine - but don't make the mistake I made once. I put three bags in the door of my freezer and let it freeze. Later on, I opened up my freezer...there's the soup - but wait! I put it in unfrozen - and the liquid all settled into one mass. It took forever to get it thawed enough to unwedge it. Now I make sure to freeze it flat (on a cookie sheet), then I can move it to where I want it.
We discovered, quite by accident, that adding tortelloni (I get the Five Cheese Tortelloni in the refrigerated section at Costco) turns this delightful soup into a main dish. The uncooked tortelloni also freezes well - I don't put it in the Zuppa Toscana that I plan to freeze, I add the two together after thawing - otherwise I'm pretty sure the tortelloni would turn to mush.
You can find reference to "soup with garlic" in Sun and Candlelight.
This soup IS totally awesome but you have to admit that if it were merely called "soup with garlic" it might make the bile rise.
ReplyDeleteI believe that our family motto is " You Can Never Have too Much Garlic!".Roasted and put into a luscious cream soup sounds divine to me. (I wonder how that motto would look translated into Latin and put on a field of watercress with wild onions rampant?!)
ReplyDeleteI think to Betty Neels' very English palate, any amount of garlic would seem like the entire soup was "garlic soup." Personally, I bet if the croutons were garlicky, that would be enough for her. Just guessing; we'll probably never know. (But add it to the list of questions we want to ask if we can ever track down a descendant of the Great Betty Neels!)
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteFinally got around to making this today. And It was Good!! But a bit of a chore in a very small kitchen. I had no place to put down grease-filled, hot pans (all that sausage! all that bacon!!). But I coped and it was worth it. Mijnheer van der Tarheelin and son barely came up for air as they worked through two big bowls each.
FYI-I used Yukon Gold potatoes instead of Russets and they worked just fine.
Thanks for letting me know it freezes well! I've been making this for years and I was worried about the heavy cream thawing wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn my soup I use mild Italian sausage without MSG and cook it with some crushed red pepper. I then drain the meat in paper towels in a bowl. My sausage is pretty lean so I add some extra virgin olive oil before adding either diced prosciutto seasoned with juniper berries or bacon bits from Costco. I also add minced garlic and a small onion that I've chopped fine in a food processor. I brown these up before adding Better Than Bouillon chicken soup base and water. Bring to a boil and I add, to a double batch, about four pounds of sliced red potatoes. As the potatoes cook I add the sausage back and start to cut the kale plus stems and add them. When the potatoes are done I add the heavy cream.
We eat ours as a meal as we add so many potatoes. It is great cold too. After cooking it the first time, I don't heat up what I eat later.
I may make this the next time we have running club at the house. I never know how many people will show up -- 20? 40? -- so being able to freeze leftovers is fab; the soup has everything you need in one pot; and I can do a vegetarian version with vegetable broth and big mushrooms and tofu pups. Yay!
ReplyDelete