Olive Garden's Tuscana Soup ~ use up that Kale

Tuscana Soup

 

 

4-6 Red potatoes, or russet potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch slices and then quarters
1 - 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, light cream or 1/2 and 1/2
6-8 cups chicken stock *
hefty pinch Salt and pepper
1 lb spicy italian sausage**, regular sausage, or turkey sausage
Bundle of kale, remove large veins and chop (can also use Rainbow Chard)
red pepper flakes, only when using sausage that is not spicy

In a large stock pot cook sausage. Remove sausage from pan and cut into quarters. Drain grease if there is a lot of it, otherwise leave the brown bits in the pan. Add chicken stock and cream or half and half; stir well. Add sausage, potatoes, kale, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes (optional). Let soup simmer for about an hour. I also added rainbow chard to this batch along with the kale and it was delish! This does freeze well.

*Make chicken stock in advance and save for later use in storage containers. Place chicken in stock pot with an onion, celery, and a carrot. Simmer for 1 hour or more for more flavor. When done boiling, remove chicken and save for later use in chicken salad, enchiladas, soups, or casseroles.  Strain stock when cooled and store in storage containers or plastic storage bags (4 quart storage containers are the easiest to deal with; I found some at my local dollar store on the cheap!)

**I made this again and used Hot Italian Sausage links. I slit the links open and then took out the meat. Using a potato masher, I broke up the sausage while it cooked. It was very spicy, so I rinsed it off and then put it back in the pan. This way it still had lots of flavor and a little heat, but not too much!

Serves 4 - 6