Zucchini Boats

from Our Best Bites

My friend was asking me for a stuffed zucchini recipe the other day and I have never tried one! I had no desire too, either. They never appealed to me, but when a friend started raving about this recipe, I decided to give it a go. I love that it is grilled and is a lot fresher tasting than most zucchini boat recipes I've read. 

Their recipe calls for turkey sausage, but I just used regular sausage since we still have a ton from our pigs. I also just took a couple slices of bread and stuck them in the food processor then added Italian seasoning. I also just used a small zucchini to chop into the mixture rather than using the middle that was scooped out. All those seeds just didn't look too appetizing to me. 

4 medium zucchini (about 10″)
8 oz sausage
1/2 C diced red onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomato (about 1/2 C diced)
3 T chopped fresh basil
1 1/3 C Italian cheese blend (the kind pre-bagged with parm/mozz/asiago/etc)
2 T Italian style bread crumbs

kosher salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Slice zucchinis in half and scoop out the middle.  Rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. I did these on the traeger, so I started it at this point and turned it to high to preheat. 

I started browning the sausage, then took my zucchini out to start grilling. Mine took about 10 minutes on one side. Meanwhile, I added the garlic, onion and zucchini to the sausage and cooked until it was tender. then added the tomatoes and fresh herbs and salt and pepper. Add crumbs and cheese to filling.

Turn the zucchinis over, fill with mixture and top with additional cheese and breadcrumbs and grill for another 10 minutes or so. 

We ate these with some crusty bread and butter. Yum!