Zuppa Toscana
1 lb Italian sausage
1 1/2 t crushed red pepper (skip if using hot sausage)
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
10 c water
5 t chicken bouillon
3 large potatoes, halved and sliced
1/2 bunch kale
1 c heavy whipping cream
1/4 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1. Brown Italian sausage in a large pot along with red pepper. Remove meat from pot and drain most of the grease.
2. Put onion and garlic into same pot and saute until onions are soft. Add water and bouillon and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat and add potatoes. Cook until soft (our potatoes were sliced really thin (~1/8 of an inch) and I only cooked them for about 5 minutes at which time they were perfect).
4. Prepare kale by removing stem from the leaf (it is rather chewy otherwise) and tearing into salad size pieces. Add to pot and cook until tender.
5. Return sausage to pot and pour in whipping cream. Heat through making sure not to boil or else the cream will curdle.
6. Serve with bacon on top as a garnish.
You can put the bacon in the soup along with the sausage, but we found that the bacon gets soft and loses its crunch so we will be simply putting it on top from now on. We also decided to double the recipe since we had no idea what to do with the rest of the kale. It makes a ton of soup (wouldn't all fit in our 8 quart pot) but we are definitely happy to have leftovers! Enjoy and let me know what you think if you try making it yourself!
