Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana Soup

Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana is a creamy Tuscan sausage potato soup recipe that’s easy to make. This Olive Garden copycat is comfort food and one of the best soups you’ll ever eat!

This easy sausage potato soup recipe is loaded with cubed Yukon gold potatoes, flavorful Italian sausage and kale leaves in a creamy broth. Top it off with crumbled cooked bacon and grated Parmesan cheese, and you’ve got a hearty meal in one bowl!

I used to have a bowl of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup whenever I had lunch with friends at the Olive Garden. I liked it so much that I even made it at home a few times.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to make Zuppa Toscana in the pressure cooker — probably because I have picky eaters who aren’t crazy about kale!

You guys, I am so glad I finally converted this favorite soup recipe into an Instant Pot recipe, because this Tuscan soup is amazing. And, it’s so much quicker in the Instant Pot!

Ingredients

Zuppa Toscana is Olive Garden’s take on a rustic soup of Tuscany. The Italian version has beans, more veggies and a lighter broth.

The American version is a hearty soup with potatoes, Italian sausage, kale and crispy bacon with a creamy base. Definitely comfort food!

• Butter
• White onion 
• Ground Italian sausage
• Sea salt
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning
• Ground black pepper
• Red pepper flakes 
• Yukon Gold potatoes
• Low sodium chicken broth
• Fresh kale leaves 
• Heavy cream
• Chopped or crumbled bacon
• Grated Parmesan cheese

How to Make Zuppa Toscana in the Instant Pot

Quick and easy recipes are my favorite, so I made this creamy soup as easy as possible.

• Use leftover cooked bacon instead of cooking it in the pot
• Use ground sausage instead of sausage in casing
• Use unpeeled Yukon Gold potatoes

Start by cooking some chopped onions until they are slightly soft. Then, add your ground Italian sausage and cook until no longer pink.

Sometimes, I’ll even use ground breakfast sausage because it’s so easy to work with and leads to less excess grease.

Season the meat, stir it, and turn off the pot. Then, add your chopped potatoes and chicken broth to the Instant Pot.

If you have some sausage bits sticking to the bottom, deglaze the pot when you add the broth. This will prevent the dreaded burn notice!

Cooking Time

Pressure cook the soup for 5 minutes on high pressure and allow a 5 minute natural pressure release, followed by a quick pressure release. This helps prevent liquid spraying everywhere.

Total cook time depends upon how long the pot takes to reach pressure and release pressure.

After removing the lid, add your chopped kale, then stir in the heavy cream while the pot is on Keep Warm setting. The soup is hot enough that it will cook the kale.

Give it a few minutes, and you’re good to go. You can add chopped cooked bacon bits and grated Parmesan cheese to the soup or serve it on the side for people to help themselves.

Variations

This soup is not super thick, so you may want to thicken it. You can mash some of the potatoes right in the pot before serving or use a cornstarch slurry for an even thicker soup.

If you don’t like kale, use chopped fresh spinach or baby spinach. Just remove the stems before adding it to the pot.

A great way to alter these copycat recipes to your personal taste with minimal effort is to change-up the type of sausage you use.

Zuppa Toscana is after all a sausage soup. You can use breakfast sausage, mild Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage, or spicy sausage.

How to Store and Reheat

This Zuppa Toscana Instant Pot recipe makes a lot of soup–enough for the whole family and then some!

You can refrigerate the leftover zuppa toscana soup in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator. It keeps well for 4 about days.

Reheat leftover potato soup in the microwave, in the Instant Pot on the saute function or in a large pot on the stove.

How to Freeze

You can freeze any leftover Zuppa Toscana for another time. BUT, keep in mind that soups with cream or milk may separate and develop a slightly grainy texture once reheated.

If this doesn’t bother you, you can freeze the leftover soup in freezer bags to save for later.

If you know you’ll be freezing the soup, you can freeze all or some before adding the cream and stir in the cream when you reheat it next time.

More Comforting Instant Pot Soup Recipes

Be sure to check out these Instant Pot recipes of some more favorite soups:

• Instant Pot Cheesy Potato Soup
• Instant Pot Kielbasa Cabbage Soup
• Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup
• Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup

Recipe published in 2020 and updated in 2021

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