From tasty soups to decadent pasta, this collection of our best Olive Garden copycat recipes has something for everyone. Olive Garden lovers unite!
Olive Garden is one of those tried-and-true chain restaurants. From their bottomless soup and salad deal (c’mon…Olive Garden salad dressing is so good!) to their endless list of pasta, there’s a little something for everyone. Since we are lovers of all-things-homemade, we decided to put all of our copycat recipes in one place for all you Olive Garden addicts out there. Here’s to saving money and DIY!
It’s not a secret that chicken alfredo is a staple dish in Olive Garden. To deliver on everyone’s favorite, we’ve included two different renditions on Olive Garden’s alfredo – a shrimp fettuccine alfredo and a chicken mushroom fettuccine alfredo.
What are all the Different Soups Served at Olive Garden?
Olive Garden has four soups it serves at most of its locations. They are as follows:
Zuppa Toscana Soup – Creamy broth with Italian sausage and kale
Minestrone Soup – Tomato-based broth soup with pasta, veggies, and beans
Pasta e fa*gioli – Tomato-based broth with pasta, sausage, and beans (not featured on our list, but you can easily add spicy Italian sausage to the minestrone soup recipe and it would be super similar)
Chicken and Gnocchi– Creamy broth with chicken and potato dumplings
Did you know? Dutch ovens are fabulous for making soups. They hold moisture so well. In most of these Olive Garden copycat recipes, you’ll see Staub pictured and for good reason – you can’t live without it!
7 Best Olive Garden Copycat Recipes
Here you’ll find our 7 best Olive Garden copycat recipes. Some are super similar to the original, while others contain a twist.
This one-pot Zuppa Toscana is nearly identical to the taste of the original. It features medium Italian sausage, kale, yellow onions, potatoes, and loads of garlic. This is by far our favorite Olive Garden recipe on the list! If you like it on the spicier side, swap in spicy Italian sausage or add in a few dashes of red pepper flakes.
2. Minestrone Soup
A vegetarian soup that eats like a meal! This classic minestrone has all the traditional ingredients – carrots, celery, zucchini, onions, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, spices, and herbs. Serve it in a big bowl with freshly grated parmesan cheese or romano.
3. Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This creamy, decadent soup is packed full of tender chicken breast, gnocchi, and chopped spinach. While store-bought gnocchi is always an option (Trader Joe’s has a great version!), make a batch of homemade gnocchi if you’re feeling ambitious.
4. Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe
Tender, juicy shrimp are tossed with fettuccine noodles and creamy alfredo sauce. Despite the minimal ingredients list, this pasta dish doesn’t skimp on rich flavors. What’s even better? This dish comes together in 30 short minutes!
5. Chicken Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo
This fettuccine packs an entire serving of vegetables in each bowl. It’s a perfect way to sneak some produce onto the plates of picky eaters. There are also two ways to elevate the flavors in this dish: 1) add in some crisped-up bacon bits or 2) swap in grilled chicken to add a bit of smokiness.
6. Easy Alfredo Sauce (5-Minutes)
Skip out on bottled alfredo sauce and make your own in just 5 minutes. The kicker? You only need 5 ingredients – heavy whipping cream, butter, parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, and garlic parsley salt! If you’re a canning whiz, you can make a huge batch and have homemade alfredo on hand for months.
7. Easy Garlic Knots Recipe
While these aren’t an exact replica of Olive Garden breadsticks, they are just as delicious. Serve them as appetizers alongside marinara sauce dip or as a side dish to pasta or salad. They are also super easy to freeze, making them perfect for meal prep. Make them with a store-bought premade pizza dough, or make them from scratch using our simple homemade pizza dough recipe.
Don’t forget desserts! Every Italian feast deserves to be rounded out with a tasty dessert. Tiramisu cake or panna cotta are perfect for the occasion.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that Olive Garden, the massive Italian-American restaurant chain with over 900 locations, follows a similar process. But by most accounts, the majority of items on Olive Garden's menu are made in-house, from scratch, on a daily basis — including its signature soups.
Every Olive Garden restaurant participates in the Harvest program, which has been in place for 20 years. Each day, restaurants collect high-quality surplus food that was not served to guests and donate it on a weekly basis to local nonprofit partners.
According to Reddit boards and TikTok's the exact brand Olive Garden uses is Lotito Romano Cheese. We think the brand doesn't matter here, and suggest you just go with a high-quality pecorino romano for best results.
The soups are made in-house daily—but all the desserts are frozen. The pasta, however, is made to order. The restaurant only uses microwaves for heating dipping sauces and warming desserts. Otherwise, everything is pan fried, deep fried, or grilled.
The Never-Ending Pasta Pass® allows a Passholder to enjoy the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl® menu at Olive Garden as many times as they wish in-restaurant for 9 weeks. That's right - unlimited pasta, sauce and toppings, plus all the soup or salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden for 9 weeks!
Olive Garden does its best to make you feel welcome with some free salad and breadsticks — you get hungry and decide to order some food, and you leave the restaurant feeling satisfied while Olive Garden makes a profit. It's a win-win situation all around.
Heat your leftover breadsticks in the oven for 7-10 minutes at 350 °F (177 °C) for the best results. You can also use a microwave or air fryer to revive leftover breadsticks. Season your leftover breadsticks with garlic salt and butter to add some flavor back into them.
Apparently, all you have to do is walk into your local Olive Garden, ask to purchase a cheese grater, and a team member will almost certainly heed your request.
It turns out the Olive Garden grater is just an amazing cheese grater in its own right. According to the Zyliss website, the grater is “the restaurant industry's favorite table-side cheese grater.” It works quickly, without much elbow grease, whether you're grating hard cheese, chocolate, or nuts.
Parmesan and Romano are both Italian cheeses that are used in a variety of dishes. However, there are some key differences between the two. Parmesan is made from cow's milk, while romano is made from sheep's milk. This difference in milk source gives the cheeses different flavours.
With over 100 restaurants across 29 states, Carrabba's Italian Grill is Olive Garden's biggest competition. Visiting Carrabba's for dinner, you'll find entrees going for $20 to $30 on average.
An immediate hit amongst diners, Olive Garden expanded in a major way throughout the '80s and '90s, thanks to its focus on keeping bills low (on average, in the low $20 range), while helping feed America's obsession with Italian food.
So, although Olive Garden's pasta isn't entirely made fresh to order, it is cooked fresh that day and it never sees the inside of a freezer or microwave. The restaurant uses the same process for its sauces and soups.
While the bread may be a staple of eating at Olive Garden, they actually aren't made from scratch in-house. Instead, Darden Restaurants, Inc. — the parent company of Olive Garden — outsources the bread from Turano Baking Company.
According to employees, it's really true: Olive Garden does send some of their chefs to Italy to train. An anonymous employee told PopSugar, "Every year, more than 200 managers and team members travel to Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany.
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