Zuppa Toscana Soup

Soon at Mike's office they will be having their annual Souper Bowl which is the Friday before the actually Super Bowl. What they do is have people bring in soups/stews and then the office votes on the best one. Every since Mike has told me about this I am in search of a recipe that would do well if I ever made something for it.

Another one of my goals for this year is to try some of those recipes I have put aside that I want to try. So I have a bunch of soup/stew recipes on the list that I thought could be Souper Bowl worthy...this was the first one I decided to try out this year.


Zuppa Toscana
allerecipes.com

1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
6 potato, thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems

1.Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2.Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

3.Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the spinach into the soup just before serving.


Review: I figured this would do well for an office full of men since it had sausage and bacon in it. Also another thing that i have heard that does well in this contest is something spicy which this recipe had with the red pepper flakes. I bought regular sweet Italian sausage and took them out of their casings because I could not find bulk sausage. I also only added about 1 tsp of red pepper flakes which was hot enough...so hot that Mike who adds red pepper flakes to everything did not add any to this soup. I also used regular milk instead of heavy cream because I did not have the cream in the house. All in all this was a tasty soup but did not get the nod for the contest...Mike said he needs to have it again. It really isn't something I would make often because for health reasons but I liked the taste of it and with a little bit of tweaking I can make it better...