Zuppa Toscana gets a make over

When my oldest daughter was little she went through what I like to call a "white food phase".  I wish I was exaggerating about just how particular she was.  If there was a speck of parsley on her pristine plate of white pasta with white cheese; she would sit there with the saddest pouty face ever and not touch it.  I would either have to send it back and try and not insult the chef who thought he or she was being a food stylist by adding that parsley masterpiece or sit there and painstakingly pick every green speck off that plate.  She was already on the thin side (sure didn't get that from her mother), so I tended to make sure we always had something on the table that met her critical eye.

I began to feel like a short-order cook, I would fix a huge dinner and then proceed to fix her a separate dinner just so she had something to eat that night.  I'm blaming the fact I did this squarely on my mother.  My younger brother (also painfully thin, and God why didn't that happen to me?) would never touch what my mom made us for dinner; he was allowed to eat a salami sandwich every night while the rest of us were forced to consume nasty stuff like liver or have our Dad yell at us (long story short, yes I still resent my Brother for being the special child, I'm totally kidding about that, well actually maybe I'm not).

Now that I'm all bent out of shape, let's move on to something more pleasant.  One place that my daughter enjoyed going out to eat was Olive Garden, not my first choice, but childhood traumas have a funny way of resurfacing at odd times.  I did however enjoy a bowl of their potato, kale and sausage soup or Zuppa Toscana as they called it. Being the picky food person I am I felt it needed a little something more (no that couldn't be where my daughter got her food issues, has to be my mother).

Zuppa Toscana Updated

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 leek, washed, cut in half and sliced

1 pound Italian Sausage, casings removed

1 - 32 ounce box of low-sodium chicken stock

2 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced

8 ounces whole crimini or button mushrooms, stems removed

5-6 ounces kale, chopped (I buy it ready to use in the bag)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/3 cup heavy cream

Heat a heavy stock pot on medium heat and add the olive oil and leek.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, until the leeks are wilting.   Add the sausage and break it up with a spoon and cook until browned.  Add the chicken stock and bring it to a boil.  Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms, kale, salt, red pepper and cook for 8-10 minutes more, until the potatoes are soft.  Add the heavy cream at the last minute and serve.

Makes 4 large servings.

This soup packs more flavor than the original and uses only the minimal amount of cream.

As for the really good news, by the time my daughter left home she would eat pretty much anything I served her and I got to quit my short-order cook job.

Enjoy,

Gina