Stuffed zucchini: a recipe for a delicious dish

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Have you ever wondered what you can do with zucchini? If not, you can try stuffing these vegetables stuffed with meat, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. You can make this dish pretty quickly, and no special skills are required at all.

So, stuffed zucchini: cooking recipe

You will need:

- 2 large zucchini, about 30 centimeters long;

- 4 teaspoons olive oil;

- half a cup of onion, peeled and finely chopped;

- 1 green pepper, finely chopped and de-seeded;

- 2 tablespoons garlic, peeled and finely chopped;

- 0.5 kilograms of ground beef or minced pork;

- 2 teaspoons basil;

- 450 grams of tomato sauce;

- 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded.

Stuffed zucchini: meat stuffing recipe

Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil or cover with aluminum foil/parchment paper.

Fry the onion and green pepper in 2 teaspoons of olive oil fornon-stick frying pan. Cook for 4 minutes or until ingredients begin to soften. Add minced garlic and sauté all together for another minute. Transfer the resulting mass to a bowl. As you can see, the recipe for stuffed zucchini in the oven requires a little preparation.

Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a frying pan and place over low heat. Fold in ground beef or pork. Stir the meat over medium heat until well browned. Drain excess fat from the pan by transferring the cooked minced meat to a colander over the sink. Place newspapers or paper towels under it to soak up the oil (so you don't pour it over the sink drain, as it's bad for the sewer system).

Once the fat is drained, return the meat to the pan. Add fried onion, pepper, garlic and tomato sauce. Stir all ingredients together until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Fry over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove the skillet from the burner. Let the meat mixture cool to room temperature.

Stuffed zucchini: recipe and completion

Cut each vegetable lengthwise into 2 halves and then into 5 cm wide pieces. Using a teaspoon, remove the seeds from them so that they resemble a plate in shape. Place prepared zucchini on a greased (foil-lined) baking sheet.

Add 1 1/2 cups of cheesemozzarella grated in a chilled mixture of meat and vegetables. Use a spoon to spoon the filling into each "vessel" on the baking sheet.

Stuffed zucchini: recipe and baking

This dish is cooked in the oven for 20 minutes. After that, take out the baking sheet and sprinkle the prepared vegetables with grated cheese. Place back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. You can check the readiness of this dish as follows: pierce the zucchini with a fork or the tip of a sharp knife. If the flesh pierces easily, you're done.

This stuffed zucchini recipe is meant to be served hot, immediately after cooking. In addition, all the above tips are suitable for similar preparation of pumpkin. You can also replace the tomato sauce with pasta if you like.