TUSCAN SOUP

Ottawa no longer has an Olive Garden Restaurant, I really don't know why they left , I was always under the impression that they were successful, at least they were at lunch time which is when I would usually go there with friends for an all you can eat soup and salad. My favourite was the Tuscan soup, full of spicy sausage, potatoes, lots of kale, yummy, yummy. I recreated this recipe a few times before, and think that I've pretty much got it . After all it's soup, that's pretty basic as far as ingredients go. The nice thing about this recipe is that it lends itself easily to substitutions. For example, you can use spinach or Swiss chard instead of kale, white beans instead of potatoes or add both, hot Italian sausage instead of mild (except, the first time I made it with the hot sausage, most comments were that it was a bit spicy...although I liked it.) How ever, if you are like me and missing this Tuscan soup. and have perfecter the recipe , please feel free to e-mail me and share your version. This is mine

TUSCAN SOUP

1 pkg mild Italian sausage (or Hot)
1 onion diced
1 large clove garlic minced
dash of olive oil(optional)
5 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
1 lb. peeled and diced potatoes
1 bunch washed and chopped kale, (spinach or Swiss chard)
2 cups milk
salt/pepper

Break up the sausage an fry in the soup pot. Add the onion and garlic an continue frying until meat s done. ( I find that the sausage renders off enough fat, but you may want to ad some olive oil at this stage to enhance the flavour. Add the stock and diced potatoes, bring the soup to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Add the kale and continue to cook until kale is soft. (If you are adding some canned white beans, I would do it at this stage.) At the end add the milk check seasoning and reheat to serve, as I particularly like a soup that arrives hot. That's it. Now how easy was that!