Keeping up with the garden
It’s a daily chore to walk through the garden and pick anything that’s ripe. That’s the easy part. Coming up with a way to use it all can be a challenge. More often than not the cherry tomatoes are eaten like candy as we pick them off. The spinach is usually made into salad and the bigger tomatoes are sliced, lightly salted and eaten as a side dish. Those darn zucchinis are the culprits that send me to the computer twice a week looking for new ways to use them.
A few days ago I found a recipe on allrecipes.com for stuffed zucchinis. How had I not seen this before? I liked some of what I saw, but I decided to include my favorite ricotta cheese filling, and figured I would make my marinara sauce from our fresh tomatoes.
This was sooo good! We were practically licking our plates! I served it with Jasmine rice and it truly couldn’t have been better. There was a little bit leftover which I reheated in the oven yesterday for lunch, and it was just as good the second day.
Stuffed zucchinis – a recipe that used every item pictured in this harvest shot!
Ingredients:
- 3 medium-size zucchini
- 1 pound ricotta cheese
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon dried basil, or 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped fine
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- Approximately 5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed with moisture squeezed out or if you use fresh spinach, blanch it in boiling water for 15 seconds and then plunge in ice water. Squeeze out all liquid and chop coarsely.
- 1 pound pork sausage, browned and crumbled (I like to use Jimmy Dean)
- Marinara sauce (I made my own using all of these fresh tomatoes)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the ricotta cheese, ½ cup of the mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, egg, basil, salt, pepper, and spinach. Set aside.
Cut zucchinis in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds.
Fill hollowed areas with the ricotta cheese mixture.(You may have extra, which can use for another dinner!)
Sprinkle with the sausage.
Arrange stuffed zucchinis in a 13x9-inch pan. Pour marinara sauce over zucchinis and top with remaining mozzarella.
Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and spotty golden brown. Serve.
