OK, so I haven’t made anything new in the last few days, so I’ll
blog about some things I made last week.
Last week was the first time this season that it really felt like fall, and
it was lovely. The skies were kind of
grey and misty and even though it was warm outside, staring out the windows of
my air conditioned house it looked cool and crisp. What is it about grey skies that makes your
72 degree house feel like 60 anyway?? Plus, high 70s outside feels freezing
compared to the 110 degree dog days of Oklahoma summers that we’re used
to. I got to thinking about when Ronny
and I worked together at the Olive Garden, and how much I used to love to sit in
the empty banquet room after a shift and hope that he’d come in and talk to me
while I ate a huge bowl of salad, drenched in that drinkable dressing followed
by a hot, spicy bowl of Zuppa Tuscana, YUM!
He’d pretend that he had tables to clean in there, though we both knew that
room had been empty all day! So I
decided I’d try to recreate some of those memorable recipes using a little help
from the good ‘ol internet. Here’s the original soup recipe:
Olive Garden
Zuppa Toscana
·
1 lb Italian
sausage (I like mild sausage)
·
2 large russet
baking potatoes, sliced in half, then in ¼ slices
·
1 large onion,
chopped
·
1/4 cup bacon
bit (optional)
·
2 garlic
cloves, minced
·
1 quart water
·
1 cup heavy
whipping cream
Directions:
Chop
or slice uncooked sausage into small pieces.
Brown
sausage in your soup pot.
Add
chicken broth and water to pot and stir.
Place
onions, potatoes, and garlic in pot.
Cook
on medium heat until potatoes are done.
Add
sausage and bacon.
Salt
and pepper to taste.
Simmer
for another 10 minutes.
Turn
to low heat.
Add
kale and cream.
Heat
through and serve.
So here’s how I changed it: I used 1 lb of Italian sausage,
4 medium Russet potatoes UNPEELED, 1 small white onion, 5 strips of sliced
bacon, 2-3 spoonfuls of minced garlic, lots of kale (veins removed and sliced
thin like ribbons), 5 cups of chicken broth, 3 1/2 cups of water, 1 cup heavy
cream and red pepper flakes to taste. Don’t
be surprised if you have to add some liquid to it, though, since mine could
down really fast. I browned the sausage
in my soup pan and left it aside for a while, not draining it. Then I
cooked the bacon until kind of crispy, cut it into small pieces and left it
aside. Then I cooked the onions until
transparent and added them and the cut up bacon to the stock pot. Then I sliced up all the potatoes using my
Pampered Chef slicer on the fattest setting, 3, or about 1/4 inch thick...
leave the skins on!... it creates awesome ribbons in the soup that add texture
and flavor. I sliced them lengthwise and then in half into 1/4 inch thick
triangles. Then I put the chicken broth, minced garlic, and water and let it
all boil for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes were tender. Then I added
the kale, heavy cream and red pepper flakes (maybe a teaspoon, I don’t
know. I eyeballed it and kept adding until
it was spicy enough) and let simmer another 15-20 minutes or so until the kale
was tender as well. WOAH! This was a PERFECT match!!! I eat this soup every time I go to the OG,
and I tell you, this was SPOT ON! I was
super impressed. I took about a bowl’s
worth and froze it, just to see if it would reheat well, and today I ate it and
it was super delish!
The next thing I made that day
was a Copy Cat Olive Garden Salad Dressing recipe. I used this one:
Lemme just start by saying,
Meh. It was good, not great. It made waaay too much, and it was a little
too sour. Ronny loved it, but I am still
on my quest for the search of the holy grail of salad dressings. I froze a little bit and I’ll keep you posted
to see if it froze well or not, and it is good dressing, just not a copy cat.
But make the soup! That was delightful went into my “Family Fav’s
Tried and True” folder!
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