This afternoon, we went to our “Dinner for 6” dinner club group, and our friend said she was making Pasta e Fagioli inspired by the soup at Olive Garden that she likes. In an effort to go along, I thought I’d shoot for an Olive Garden-inspired salad, only making it better by replacing romaine for the iceberg and leaving out the only food I can’t love: olives.
In the process, I found out about www.copykat.com, this lovely website that provides copy cat recipes of restaurant dishes. How lovely!
So here’s the link to Olive Garden Salad. I recommend replacing the iceberg with a romaine or green leaf lettuce. Also, I substituted Newman’s Own Light Italian with a bit of salt and pepper added in lieu of the “real” Olive Garden dressing, which is probably much higher in sodium.
My friend used the recipe for Pasta e Fagioli from America’s Test Kitchen subsituting the bacon with italian sausage. With a bit of parmesan sprinkled on top, it was a soup with incredible flavor.
The combination of the soup with the salad was a.maze.ing! So, next time you’re in the mood for Italian, I totally recommend this soup/salad combo…and next time you want to make a better version of your favorite restaurant dishes, try CopyKat!
Since Austin 