Tuscan Zuppa

If you love the Olive Garden, you will love this soup. I totally stole this from someone at our church - Jan Cichowski (actually she gave it to me!). And then I found pictures online with the same recipe!!! So, its not authentic nor are the pictures of me preparing it. BUT, you will LOVE this soup - its super yummy. I tend to leave out the red pepper flakes so that my kids will actually eat this!

You'll see it calls for bacon...I am careful to always purchase nitrite-free bacon. Why? Nitrites are found in lunch meats and most all processed meats, and they are shown to cause stomach/pancreatic and prostate cancer - or at least increase the liklihood of those. To read more about that, click HERE. I would also just prefer to have my food, and especially the meat I use, be un-messed-with, ya know?! SO, bring on the bacon and sausage (nitrite-free, of course) and ENJOY!!!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb ground Italian sausage
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
• 2 tsp garlic puree
• 10 cups water
• 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
• ¼ of a bunch of kale

1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.

2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic for approxiamtly 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3. Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling.

4. Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage.
7. Add kale just before serving. Delicious!

Buon appetito!