Food You Can Eat: Stuffed Zucchini

First things first:  I made a point of only planting four zucchini plants this year, and I still have way more than I can eat at any one time.  I could just keep banging away at zucchini bread or Spaghetti alle Zucchine, but there are other recipes which need to be handled for the family cookbook and this is one of them.  I remember my mother making it when I was a kid and I hated it at the time because she would use these two-foot-long zucchinis which had the worst texture.  When I learned that zucchini should actually be harvested when they are much smaller, I saw the light.

A caveat before we get started:  Chances are that you’ll wind up with extra filling because the laws of physics can only be bent so far.  Feel free to use it as an additional side dish, or just mix a bunch of cheese in there so it melts and then eat it until that deep sense of regret you feel on a daily basis becomes more noticeable.

Here’s what you’ll need:

3 Small-to-Medium Zucchini

1 Lb. Ground Beef

2 Med. Onions, chopped

½ Cup Celery, thinly sliced

¼ Cup Fresh Parsley, chopped

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

½ tsp. Salt

⅛ tsp. Pepper

½ Cup Rice, cooked

15 oz. Canned Tomato Sauce

½ Cup Grated Parmesan or Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Slice zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop meat out while leaving shells intact.  Chop zucchini meat and set aside. 

Steam shells in a 400-degree oven for about 10 minutes.

In a saucepan over medium heat, brown ground beef and onions.  Add celery and seasonings and cook an additional 7 minutes.  Add the chopped zucchini and cook an additional 5 minutes.  Add rice and tomato sauce and cook for another 5 minutes.

Stuff shells with filling, cover with cheese and bake, covered, in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes.

Chances are, if I flew home and asked my mother to make stuffed zucchini, she would still use one of those criminally large ones and it would still be terrible.