Pressure Cooker Zuppa Toscana
A lightened-up pressure cooker zuppa toscana – Olive Garden’s popular soup made with sausage, potatoes, and spinach.
My copycat Zuppa Toscana is a lightened up version using chicken sausage, and evaporated milk instead of heavy cream, so you get a flavorful, creamy soup with a lot less fat. I used spinach in the soup because it’s what I had in the fridge, but Olive Garden uses kale. Bacon isn’t traditional either, but is a colorful, flavorful addition to the soup.
Making Zuppa Toscana in an Instant Pot
I thought this soup was a little bit on the spicy side. But my husband and son both agreed that Olive Garden’s is a little more spicy, and sprinkled a little more red pepper flakes on the soup in their bowl.
If you don’t like your soup spicy you can reduce the red pepper flakes in the recipe. If your family likes to kick it up a notch, put the red pepper flakes on the table for them. Enjoy!
Select Saute and add the bacon to the pressure cooking pot. Cook until crisp and remove to a plate lined with paper towels. Add sausage to the pressure cooking pot and cook until browned. Remove to a second plate lined with paper towels. Add butter to the pressure cooking pot. When butter is melted, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add 1 can chicken broth, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the pressure cooking pot. Put the steamer basket in the pressure cooker pot. Add the diced potatoes. Lock lid in place, select High Pressure and 4 minutes cook time and start. When timer beeps, turn off pressure cooker and do a quick pressure release. Carefully remove potatoes and steamer basket from the pressure cooking pot. Add remaining 2 cans of chicken broth to pressure cooking pot. In a mixing bowl, dissolve cornstarch in a little evaporated milk. Add to pressure cooking pot along with the remainder of the evaporate milk. Select Simmer and bring to a boil, stirring often. When soup thickens, stir in 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, spinach, browned sausage, potatoes and half of the crispy bacon. Serve topped with remaining Parmesan and bacon.Lightened-up Zuppa Toscana
Ingredients
Instructions
Zucchini and Yellow Squash Soup with Rosemary and Parmesan, Kalyn’s Kitchen
Julia Child’s French Onion Soup, Hip Pressure Cooking
Easy Spicy Zucchini Rice Soup, Letty’s Kitchen
Lentil Orzo Soup, Pressure Cooking Today
Creamy Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup, Pressure Cooking Today
My pressure cooker doesn’t have a simmer feature – would saute work?
Hi Lexi – yes, saute will work and if it starts boiling a little too quickly, you can lift the pot up away from the heating element or turn the pot on and off.
I came across your recipe a couple years ago and have been cooking it regularly since then (easily 10+ times). Cooking it tonight at the demand of a guest I’m having over (he overheard a friend talking about it and saw photos of how delicious it looks). I felt compelled to leave a comment.
I am an avid cook, and this recipe is hands down the most well received one in my arsenal. I use kale instead of spinach since I prefer more texture, and maybe a little more bacon than you mention. Otherwise I follow it strictly. Incredibly tasty and not that hard to make!
I made two batches of this soup – one for my family and one for an under-the-weather neighbor’s family. It was very easy, and I have never received so many compliments from so many people about a soup! (I made it exactly according to the recipe, except I used regular ground Italian sausage), Thanks so much for the delicious recipe – it’s a keeper!
Thanks Emily! That’s so nice of you to make it for your neighbor’s family as well. Glad it was a hit!
The only word necessary is Yum, this was a huge hit. I did use spicy chicken sausage and omitted the red pepper. So delicious! Nice add to the winter rotation of meals.
Thanks Jacki! Perfect for winter for sure.
I would like to make this again today (for the 5th time!), but this time using gnocchi instead of potatoes. Would this change the cooking time or the order in which it is added?
Hi Mary – I haven’t tried gnocchi in the pressure cooker yet, but I would use 1/3 of the cooking time on the gnocchi package. Let me know if you try it.
I made it and cooked the gnocchi for only one minute as that was a third of the cooking time on the package. The soup turned out very delicious! Thank you.
That’s great. Thanks for letting me know.
This was delicious! Thank you! I love how you used the canned, evaporated milk, as that’s easy to keep on hand. I added more spinach, later; but, otherwise, made as written. I got lots of compliments, from the lucky family members, with whom I shared this soup! ?
Thanks Belinda! More spinach just makes you feel better about eating it 🙂
I just made this soup for the first time and set down to a bowl of it. Oh my! This is so seriously delicious. And to think, it is a lightened version. Nothing light tasting about it. Thank you so much Barbara for coming up with this pressure cooker, light version of a popular favorite!
I’ve made this soup before without a pressure cooker with sliced potatoes. I prefer your version with the steamed potatoes, they don’t dissolve like before. Didn’t have any evaporated Milk so used just a 1/4 cup of heavy cream instead.
Thanks for a delicious and quick recipe.
I prefer the chunky pieces of steamed potato too. It really is a noticeable difference. Thanks Astrid!
this soup is so delicious! I had regular Italian pork sausage on hand, so a I used that, added a cooked chicken breast chopped tha needed to be used, a can of cici beans and some Italian seasoning…otherwise followed the recipe…it’s definitely a keeper!
Thanks Marni – it’s great that you used what you had on hand and made the recipe your own. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
What if the unit you have does not have a steamer basket? Help. Thanks so much!
Hi Monica – Here’s a link to the steamer basket I like OXO Good Grips Pop-Up Steamer. But you don’t have to use a basket, you can cook the potatoes without it, they’re just better if they’re steamed instead of boiled. Enjoy!
Just made this recipe, and It’s delicious! My meat choices were different. I used 2 links spicy Italian sausage and spicy venison breakfast sausage and 4 left over bacon strips (so already cooked). Thanks for this recipe, the Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden is one of my favorite soups!
Sounds like a delicious way to change it up. So glad you enjoyed it.
Hi again Barbara-I took your advice and went with a spicy Italian chicken sausage. I also had a link of hot Italian sausage here so I added that too. Oh my gosh is this soup wonderful. For some reason it seemed to want to take forever to come to a boil on “simmer” so I dumped the soup into a Dutch oven and thickened it on the stove top. The had baby spinach here so I used that.
HEAVENLY……..when Bob takes a taste and says “DON’T LOSE THIS RECIPE”….well, you know that’s a 2 thumbs up.
Thanks again for sharing your version-it’s a winner here.
Love this recipe. I used Spicy Italian sausage instead and stirred in
a can of cannellini beans at the end.
Thanks Chris! Sounds like delicious changes.
This is my favorite soup from Olive Garden!
This sounds so tasty. Do you think you could use red potatoes?
Hi Coreen – I haven’t tried red potatoes, but I think it would work just fine. If you try them, let me know. Thanks!
I had on my menu for the week to make Zuppa Toscana because I have kale to be used up, and I’m just getting unto pressure cooking , so thought it was wonderful when your recipe popped up in my blog reader! My quick question is, do you drain the fat from the bacon and sausage before proceeding with the rest of the recipe? Thanks!
Diane
Sounds like perfect timing! When I dump the bacon and sausage on the paper towel lined plate, I pour off most of the fat, I don’t wipe out the pan though. Thanks for the great question.
Looks delicious Barbara! I don’t see in the method when you added the spinach. I’m thinking right at the end? Im also thinking about adding some rice to the broth under the potatoes.
Thanks Drew! Yes, the spinach is added at the end. I’ve updated the directions. Adding a little rice to the broth should work well and make for a heartier soup.
I usually stay away from creamy soups because of all the fat. Thanks for lightening this up. Can’t wait to try it.
What a great looking bowl of soup. I’ve never had Olive Garden’s version but I sure love the looks of yours.
Did you use a seasoned chicken sausage in it Barbara? If so, what flavor did you use? That’s all I can get around here….
I love the idea of spinach over kale too-spinach is about as far as Bob will go when it comes to greens.
Looking forward to trying this one-it’s definitely soup weather here. 🙂
Hi Carol! My local grocer makes a seasoned chicken sausage that is similar in flavor to a traditional pork sausage that I like to use. I think an Italian flavor chicken sausage would be delicious in this soup as well. Let me know how you like it. Thanks!
Mmmmmmmmm sounds like SUCH a perfect fall / winter soup!!