How to Make Olive Garden's Soup, Salad and Breadsticks

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When you’re at Nicole’s, you’re family. In this video, Nicole makes three copycat recipes for Olive Garden’s zuppa toscana, breadsticks, and salad! Whether it's a weeknight or a Sunday night dinner, this is a meal the entire family will enjoy.

Transcript

00:00They say when you're here, you're family,

00:01or something like that.

00:03They're so soft, mm-hmm.

00:06Welcome to my restaurant.

00:07Today's special, soup, salad, and breadsticks.

00:10I've got your perfect dinner idea for this week.

00:12I'm going Italian, and I'm going family style

00:14with Olive Garden's soup, salad, and breadsticks.

00:18Why don't we do this more often?

00:19They promote it for lunch,

00:21but I think it makes the perfect family dinner.

00:23I'm gonna keep it super easy for you,

00:25so this is a dinner that you could also make

00:28on a weeknight or a Sunday supper.

00:30Let's start with the soup.

00:31I'm making their famous zuppa toscana.

00:35This is creamy, it's hearty.

00:37So I'm just gonna start by chopping up an onion.

00:39So while I'm Italian, and we cook a lot of Italian food,

00:43one thing that you could know about us

00:45is that we also like Olive Garden.

00:47It's like my mom's favorite place to go

00:49when she wants to have a family dinner,

00:52but doesn't wanna cook.

00:53Onion, garlic, just all good Italian things.

00:57That's what it starts with.

00:58Now, we can head over to the stove, get our sausage going.

01:02Okay, so we're gonna render the fat out of this sausage.

01:05We know that's gonna create a base

01:06to carry the rest of our flavors throughout the dish.

01:09So I'm going to get it going

01:10with just the help of a little bit of oil.

01:13And then if you add your sausage, you know,

01:14while the pan is not fully hot,

01:16it'll all start to heat up

01:18and draw the fat out at the same time.

01:20So I took the sausage out of the casing,

01:22and I'm just kinda breaking it up.

01:23You know, this is one of those meals

01:25that makes you wanna just pour yourself a glass of wine

01:28while you cook.

01:29That's what cooking is.

01:30You know, it's all about the experience.

01:33You can see how much fat is rendered out,

01:34and I'm gonna give it a stir and break it up.

01:38This soup could also be made in the crock pot,

01:41so this is something you could get going before work

01:43and then, you know, make your salad and breadsticks

01:46when you get home.

01:47Wait till you see my little hack with the breadsticks.

01:50We're not gonna be kneading any dough, I can tell you that.

01:53All right, once the sausage is mostly brown,

01:55I'm gonna go in with my onion and garlic.

01:57We're gonna cook this down till the onions are soft

01:59and become translucent.

02:01I'm gonna let that just kinda soften and come together,

02:03and let's just chop up the potatoes real quick.

02:06These are just russet potatoes,

02:07and I'm gonna leave the peel on

02:10just to keep with that fartiness of the soup.

02:12And as I chop them up,

02:14I'm just gonna go ahead and add it straight into the pot.

02:17All right, and then I'm going in with some chicken broth.

02:19You could also just use water if you want,

02:21but you want everything to be just submerged.

02:24When we add this, we're gonna scrape the bottom of the pot

02:26and get all that flavor off the bottom.

02:28So I'm gonna go in with just about a cup of water to that.

02:32S***.

02:33Oh.

02:34Didn't know you were there.

02:36There we go.

02:36That is your base and could not be any easier.

02:40I'm going to add in a little bit of salt and pepper.

02:45That's it, I'm just gonna bring it to a boil

02:46and I'm gonna cover it and let it simmer,

02:49and I'll just cook that until the potatoes are tender.

02:50I forgot to tell you to be cooking off some bacon.

02:53I went ahead and did this.

02:55This is going to be our delicious topping.

02:56Now, you can see my little magic trick

02:59with homemade breadsticks.

03:04Frozen rolled dough.

03:06This is just the dough.

03:07We're gonna let them thaw out a little bit on here,

03:10and then we're gonna roll them

03:11into the shape of the breadsticks.

03:14I know they don't look like much now,

03:16but you just gotta trust the process.

03:18In the meantime, you can be melting some butter

03:21and get your salad stuff ready.

03:22Now, there is something about the Olive Garden salad.

03:26This is like my favorite kind of salad.

03:28The ingredients are very simple,

03:30so it's just iceberg salad blend.

03:32Little onion, really thinly sliced

03:34is kind of what you want here.

03:36Now, the tomatoes, for the sake of copycat,

03:39I'm gonna keep them in rounds.

03:41So, in with some black olives and the croutons.

03:45Cut up the tomatoes and never put them in there.

03:47And then a few of these guys.

03:50Okay, I'm not gonna toss it yet.

03:51You wanna toss it about five to 10 minutes before you eat.

03:54All right, these rolls thaw out in no time,

03:56and then you're going to roll it

03:57into like an eight-inch stick,

04:00and then we're gonna place it on a parchment lined sheet.

04:02You just wanna kinda keep it rounded,

04:03because they are like a rounded shape.

04:05So, I'm gonna go ahead and brush them with butter.

04:07That way, as they sit, they don't dry out.

04:10And then we're just gonna let them sit

04:11at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

04:12They're gonna rise a little bit,

04:14and then you just pop them in the oven,

04:15and they take no time to bake.

04:17Let's finish off the soup,

04:18and we're about to have dinner.

04:20All right, you can look and see

04:22the potatoes are all tender, sausage is cooked,

04:25but what we're missing is the creaminess.

04:28We take some heavy cream,

04:30and we're gonna stir in a little bit of flour

04:32and whisk that into the cream until it's fully dissolved.

04:35You don't want any chunks.

04:37Okay, and I'm gonna stir that into the soup

04:39and let it simmer until it's all thick and rich.

04:42And then also, at this point, I'm adding in the kale.

04:45I've already washed this

04:45and just kinda take the stems off.

04:47And this may look like a lot,

04:48but we know it's gonna shrink down

04:50just like any of our greens that we cook.

04:53Okay, and then this is just gonna simmer

04:54just for about 15 more minutes.

04:56I'll finish seasoning it up.

04:58Good to go.

04:59I like this.

05:01I could've shaped them maybe a little bit better,

05:03but you get the idea.

05:05They don't have to be perfect.

05:06These are homemade.

05:08Okay, so I'm gonna brush them with butter,

05:10lots of butter, and then sprinkle them

05:12with some garlic salt.

05:13You know how they're kinda like sandy on the top?

05:15That's what it is.

05:17They're so soft.

05:21You won't believe it.

05:23You won't believe it.

05:24See how pillowy soft in the middle,

05:27little toasty golden on the outside,

05:29buttery, salty, garlicky.

05:32The only problem is, at home,

05:34they're probably not unlimited.

05:36That could get dangerous.

05:39That's just cute.

05:40Let's go ahead and toss the salad

05:41before we finish off the soup

05:43so that it can be marinating in there.

05:45I've got it like that, looking juicy.

05:48I mean, come on.

05:50Would you care for any more salad?

05:52Back to business.

05:53Oh, the soup.

05:55Does that not look bomb.com?

05:58That was a mom comment.

06:00I'll admit.

06:00For the finishing seasoning,

06:02it's just a little bit of cayenne pepper to your liking.

06:07That needs nothing.

06:09Amazing.

06:10Call in the family.

06:11Dinner is served.

06:13Top it off with a little bit of crumbled bacon

06:16and a little bit of parsley.

06:18And why not?

06:21Welcome to my restaurant.

06:23Today's special, soup, salad, and breadsticks.

06:25Oh yeah, the salad is perfect now.

06:28It's like almost to the soggy, but not quite.

06:32Breadstick, A plus.

06:34Salad, perfect bite.

06:38Mm, this is my favorite part of the meal

06:44whenever I've gone to Olive Garden.

06:46I do, I fill up on the salad, I love it.

06:48Just like it, just like it.

06:51This is a great dinner.

06:53Great lunch if you are having, you know, the ladies over.

06:57What about the guys?

06:58I mean, my husband would love this.

07:00This is his favorite kind of soup.

07:05Mm, it's so satisfying

07:08because of the creaminess and the potatoes,

07:11but you get that little kick

07:13from that spicy Italian sausage.

07:15Feels a little bit healthy with the kale in there.

07:19That is a warm hug.

07:21It's like you're coming to grandma's for those hugs.

07:24That's what this Olive Garden soup, salad,

07:26and breadsticks is all about.

07:28Y'all should try this.

07:28It was like so easy to make,

07:30but it looks like you made multiple things

07:32and it was almost like you put a lot of effort into it,

07:36but they don't have to know.

07:37We can just know about our little cheat secrets here

07:40between the rolls and the dressing.

07:42You get it.

07:43It's a good one.

07:46I knew I forgot something.

07:48I'm working so hard.

07:50Forgot to reward myself.

07:54Cheers.

07:56Now the dinner is complete.

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