This recipe is a bit of a variation on stuffed zucchini that my mom
has made since I was a little kid. I love potatoes and think that little cubes
of it are fantastic in this rich and lemony tomato sauce, so I added them
and the mint and chile flakes to zip it up a bit.
You can make this dish vegan by skipping the ground beef and
using more rice and more of the zucchini innards for your stuffing. You an also
add some slices of eggplant to the sauce to give it more texture. (Be sure to
salt them first).
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 fat zukes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tomatoes, sliced thickly
1 cup passata
250 g ground beef
3 tbsp chopped parsley
1/3 cup cooked rice
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
Pinch of chile flakes
Juice of half a lemon
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Carefully cut the zukes in half and scoop out the inside. Be
careful to get as much of the flesh as you can but not to make any holes in the
skin. Roughly chop and then reserve the pulp. Put the zukes aside.
To prepare the filling, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a
medium-sized frying pan. Add half the onions and sautee for a few minutes until
they start to turn brown. Add half the garlic and sautee for another minute.
Add the ground beef to the pan and brown. Add the tomato
paste, about 1/3 of the chopped zucchini pulp, rice, mint, parsley, chile
flakes, salt and pepper. Then add about 1/3 cup of water so your tomato paste
has enough liquid to mix well into the other ingredients. Cook the whole
mixture for about 10-12 minutes until it’s just cooked. Put aside to cool.
In a large, flat-bottom oven-proof pot (it needs to be big
enough to lay out your zukes as well as go in the oven), heat up the remainder
of the olive oil. Sautee onions and garlic as above.
Turn the heat down to med-low. Carefully add the passata so
you don’t get splattered. Lay the tomato slices (and eggplant if you're using it) on the bottom of the pot, add
the rest of the chopped zucchini pulp, lemon juice, potato cubes, salt, and pepper.
Bring to the boil.
In the meantime, take the cooled filling and carefully spoon
it into the zucchini shells.
Place the stuffed zukes on top of the vegetable mixture in the pot and reduce the temperature to low.Simmer covered for about 20 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
After 20 minutes, turn off the burner and remove the cover from the pot.
Put the pot in the oven uncovered to cook for about another 20 minutes.
When it's ready, the dish should be
a bit brown on top, and the veggies (particularly the potaotoes) all soft.
Depending on the water content of the zukes, you may want to remove them from
the sauce and boil it down for a thicker sauce or just serve it as is.
Serve with rice, smothered in the rich cooking sauce. Add
salt and pepper to taste.
© Gail J. Cohen 2018
