Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Well, as is customary about this time of year, billions of recipes involving zucchini are blasted through the Internet cookbooks, mine included. For some reason, we had a weird occurrence with excessive zucchini this year. No no, I know everyone gets excessive zucchini EVERY year- but the weird thing is that I had the kids plant yellow squash, and what came up were zucchini plants! (I don’t know if the seeds were mislabeled, or the kids were daydreaming about Wii accessories on planting day and got the packages mixed up). SO whereas I planned for TWO zucchini plants and THREE yellow squash plants, what I actually got were ZERO yellow squash and FIVE zucchini plants. *sigh* And only half the gang here like zucchini. *sigh sigh*

Well, here’s a recipe that everyone is forced to eat that everyone enjoys. Stuffed Zucchini! You know, I did not know this was a “real” recipe for the longest time. Here I am, thinking I made it up, and lo and behold I see other people writing about it. Sheesh.

So this recipe is customizable. You can make it Plain Jane Family Fare like I have here, or you can go Puttin’ On the Ritz Fancy by doing things like replacing the mozzarella cheese with provolone slices; or adding things like tarragon or marjoram; or using freshly sliced tomatoes or add some leftover spaghetti sauce instead of the canned tomatoes; whatever floats your boat. And you can slice the zucchini lengthwise to scoop out the pulp, or get really fancy and make cylinders and stuff it in the other direction. It’s very versatile, and you can go hog wild with it.

Stuffed Zucchini
Serves 6
3-6 small or medium-sized zucchini, depending on your family’s tolerance for the veggie
1 pound ground sausage
1 medium Vidalia, white, or red onion
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups whole-milk mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Note: Some folks parboil the zucchini before slicing it, but I don’t. I like my zucchini firm.

Cook the ground sausage, add the onion and chopped garlic near the end of the cooking to soften them. Add the tomatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes. In the meantime, prepare your zucchini: slice your zucchini and scoop out the seeds and a little bit of the pulp. You will throw away the seeds, but dice up the pulp to use as an ingredient in the stuffing.

Remove your sausage/onion/garlic/tomato mixture from the stove and let it cool for a few minutes. Add the spices, Parmesan Cheese, the zucchini pulp, and the bread crumbs, and mix well.

Arrange your zucchini “boats” (or cylinders) in a large, lightly-greased casserole dish. Carefully spoon the mix into the boats. Take your mozzarella cheese and sprinkle generously over the boats.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. If you have parboiled the zucchini, bake for less time, about 30 minutes.

Serve with a side dish of boiled elbows and sauce, or a nice green salad and crusty bread. Yum!

Photo courtesy of DallasNews.