243 Reviews of Olive Garden Copycat Zuppa Toscana

From: Denise in da Kitchen

On Oct 17, 2004

Well, I guess I should add my rave reviews to all the others. This is AWESOME! My DH swears it is even better than Olive Garden's! I read all 43 review carefully and this is what I did: I used a few more potatoes than called for so it was a little thicker, and I also cut down on the water but used more chicken broth. I cut the kale up into smaller strips and cooked it with the potatoes. I used half sweet sausage and half hot, removed them from their casings, roasted them in the oven then tore them into smaller chuncks. I also precooked the onions and garlic in a little olive oil before adding to the soup. It turned out perfectly! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Cycle Michael for this wonderful soup!

From: sdowney

On Jan 27, 2003

I made this for my father-in-law who loves this soup. It was part of his birthday meal and according to him it really does taste just like the Olive Garden's. I never had the soup before but it was very good. The only thing he suggested was to rough mash a little of the potato to give it a thicker consistency. Other than that he gave it a 5 star rating. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

From: maggie Weinand

On Mar 24, 2003

Since we are watching our weight and fat consumption, I made it with Morningstar Farms soy sausage crumbles and evaporated skim milk in place of the heavy cream. It was great and low fat!

From: Pandora Spocks

On Feb 18, 2009

Oh...Ma...Ga!!! This soup was fantastic!! I made it today for lunch and DH said it was BETTER than OG's! I used hot Italian sausage, removed from casings, crumbled and browned on the stove. Even though I drained the grease, there was still quite a bit so there was an orange tint to the soup but this did not detract from the wonderful flavor at all. Next time, I may put the cooked sausage on paper towels and blot well to remove more of the grease. I used 2 "stalks" of Kale roughly chopped (excluding the stem), and the rest of the ingredients exactly as stated except I used the Wal-mart brand real bacon bits in a can since they didn't have the OM brand. Terrific!! Thank you for what is already a new family favorite!! UPDATE: I've made this recipe countless times since I found it and it has been outstanding each and every time. I recently did it in my 7 quart crockpot (adjusting the recipe for more servings) and it was outstanding cooked that way as well. When making in the crockpot, if you slice some of your potatoes thinner, those potatoes practically disintegrate making for a slightly thicker broth, while the thicker sliced potatoes provide substance. It was a very nice change of pace for this already perfect recipe. Once I added the sausage and bacon about 2/3 of the way into the cooking time, the pre-cooked sausage also got more and more tender the longer it simmered. I put the chopped kale in the pot on top of the soup about 30 minutes before serving without mixing it in and it essentially steamed the kale leaving it a lovely bright green color that really made for a beautiful bowl of soup. Thanks again for one of my family's most favorite recipes!

From: Lael Bagnall

On Mar 22, 2004

Perfecto!!! I used the italian sausage in a roll and just browned it on top of the stove. Worked great. I honestly believe this could stand side by side with the OG stuff and no one would be able to tell the difference. Reheats well, too. Relatively easy to make. Thanks for sharing. I was thrilled to find it.

From: Aussie-In-California

On Jan 14, 2004

Really good recipe! So close to the read deal. I only used half a small onion, sauteed the onions & garlic together in a little olive oil before adding the potatoes, broth & water. Also, I removed the sausage from the casing before cooking and popped it in a small roasting pan and baked it, then break the chunks up with a fork to give it a more Olive Gardeny kind of presentation. Next time I will not be a wimp and use the spicy Italian sausage. Thanks!

From: AZTexconsin

On Oct 9, 2004

This recipe tastes exactly like Olive Garden's! I only put 1/3 can (chicken broth can) of water in though. I thought it would be two watery with a full quart. I took this to a dinner engagement it was an absolute hit! Thanks for sharing!! Oh, I had never even heard of kale before, I found it in the produce isle. For those who don't know it's a green leafy type vegetable. : )-Texancook'r

From: WagnerMom

On Sep 27, 2004

Great recipe! Exactly like OG's when made as written. I've made from 4X to 6X the original recipe for the potlucks I've attended, with no ill effects from giganticising it. I've recently taken to trying to lower the fat content by substituting half and half (on the second go around) and low-fat Coffeemate non-dairy creamer (for the 3rd try) in place of the heavy cream. The flavor remains good, but the consistency is definitely less rich. If you'd like to have a rich soup with less guilt, go with the half and half. If huge fat reduction with a good flavor is your goal, try the low-fat Coffeemate. They even have a fat-free version; but I haven't tried that. (Perhaps someone else knows whether the new fat-free half and half would work.) I have used the Ready Bacon from Costco each time and simply whirl the pre-cooked bacon in my food processor until it is finely chopped. My compliments to Cycle Michael for a fabulous recipe .

From: Michelle Elsten

On Mar 15, 2004

Great recipe! Tastes like the real deal! However, I used real bacon instead of Oscar Meyer bacon bits, sauteed the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, added a few more potatoes, omitted the water and replaced it with a bit more chicken broth for flavor, and lastly, used a bit less cream. Delicious!

From: MaryElisia

On Feb 25, 2004

I am a total soup junkie, and I have always loved this soup from Olive Garden. I really enjoyed having a recipe to recreate the soup I like so much, however, I feel that 1 cup heavy cream was too much... the soup was soooo good until I put that much heavy cream in. I will defintely make this soup again, but with only half the 1 cup cream. Thanks for putting up the recipe