Stuffedzucchiniintomatosauceorkousa Recipes

ITALIAN STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a small baking dish with foil. Scoop out the seeds from the zucchini, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick shell.
• Combine the ricotta, 1/4 cup Italian cheese blend, the parsley, capicola and lemon zest and juice in a medium bowl. Season the zucchini with salt and pepper, then fill with the ricotta mixture.
• Drizzle each zucchini half with about 1 tablespoon marinara sauce, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Italian cheese blend. Transfer to the baking dish and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 20 minutes.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE-STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Cut each zucchini lengthwise in half. Scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/4-in. shell; chop pulp. Place zucchini shells in a large microwave-safe dish. In batches, microwave, covered, on high 2-3 minutes or until crisp-tender., In a large skillet, cook sausage and zucchini pulp over medium heat 6-8 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink, breaking sausage into crumbles; drain. Stir in tomatoes, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, herbs and pepper. Spoon into zucchini shells., Place in 2 ungreased 13x9-in. baking dishes. Bake, covered, 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, 5-8 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. If desired, sprinkle with additional minced parsley.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI IN TOMATO SAUCE OR KOUSA

Steps:

• Choose either medium or small zucchini. Wash well cut of stem end. Using a corer hollow out zucchini leaving rounded end intact. Try not to puncture the skin. Soak in salted water for 10 minutes.
• Gently fry onion in butter until transparent. Add pine nuts after 10 minutes cook with onions for another 10 minutes, stir occasionally.
• Add pan contents to ground meat, rice parsley, spice and about a teaspoon of salt and pepper and 1/4 cup of water if need to be easy to work with (I don't add water).
• Fill zucchini with stuffing. (The rice expands and the meat will shrink so fill them all the way).
• Prepare the sauce: in a frying pan gently fry chopped onion in butter. When transparent add chopped garlic cook for a few seconds and chopped peeled tomatoes, tomato paste, water and cinnamon with salt and pepper to taste.
• Ladle some of the sauce into the bottom of a heavy based pan, arrange zucchini in layers adding sauce to each layer, you may have 2-3 layers of zucchini. Or I stand them up on end with the open side up (again DH tells me this is not the "proper" way to do it but if they burn then only the one end is ruined).
• Add enough water to just cover the zucchini with sauce, you may or may not need to do this depending on how much sauce you have.
• Cover and simmer gently for 1 1/4 hours or until veggies are tender and rice is cooked.
• Serve hot or warm with sauce and Arabic pita bread for dipping.

STUFFED ZUCCHINI ITALIAN STYLE

Steps:

• In large skillet, brown sausage.
• Drain well.
• In same skillet, saute onion & garlic 5 minutes in oil.
• Cut zucchini in half - remove seeds from center, reserving meaty party and cutting into cube approximate 1/2" in size, leaving boat shell for stuffing.
• In large bowl mix together sausage, bread crumbs, seasonings, egg, onion, garlic and tomatoes and cubed zucchini.
• Mix to just combine.
• Stuff into zucchini boats and place in 9x13 baking dish.
• Pour entire can of tomato sauce over stuffed boats.
• Bake un-covered in 375º oven approximately 45 minutes.
• Place cheese (tear to fit boats or use shredded) & place on top of tomato sauce.
• Return to oven for approximately 10 minutes - cheese should bubble.
• Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

ORZO-STUFFED TOMATOES

Steps:

• Cook orzo according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut a thin slice off the top of each tomato. Scoop out pulp, leaving a 1/2-in. shell. Set aside 6 tablespoons pulp for filling. Invert tomatoes onto paper towels to drain. Drain orzo., In a small heavy saucepan, cook butter over medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the heat; stir in the cheese, basil, parsley, salt, pepper, orzo and reserved pulp. Spoon into tomatoes. , Place in an ungreased 2-qt. baking dish; sprinkle with paprika. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.