Home

Zucchini stuffed with rice

17/11/2023

Rice-stuffed zucchini is a delicious and light summer dish, great to serve as a starter or as a main course. Let’s see together how to prepare them:

Ingredients

  • 4 medium zucchini
  • 150 g of rice
  • 1 small onion
  • 200 g of tomato sauce
  • 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Fresh basil (optional)
  • 1 clove of garlic (optional)
  • 100 g of mozzarella (for a more stringy version, optional)

Preparation

  1. Wash the zucchini under running water and cut them in half lengthwise. With the help of a teaspoon, gently scoop out the pulp to create a cavity, being careful not to break the outer skin. Set the pulp aside for the filling.

  2. Boil the rice in a pot with salted water, following the cooking times indicated on the package. Once cooked, drain and let it cool.

  3. In the meantime, finely chop the onion and sauté in a pan with the extra virgin olive oil until it becomes translucent. If you wish, you can add a whole clove of garlic to flavor the oil, then remove it.

  4. Add the chopped zucchini pulp, salt and pepper to taste, and cook for about 5-10 minutes until it softens.

  5. Add the tomato sauce to the zucchini pulp and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, adjusting the salt and pepper if necessary.

  6. Mix the cooked rice into the zucchini and onion sauce, stir well so that the ingredients blend together. If you have chosen to use mozzarella, cut it into cubes and add it to the mix.

  7. Fill the hollowed zucchini with the prepared rice mixture and sprinkle them with the grated Parmesan cheese.

  8. Place the zucchini in an oiled baking dish and pour some water or diluted tomato sauce on the bottom to prevent the zucchini from drying out too much during cooking.

  9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 20-30 minutes or until the zucchini are cooked and the surface is golden.

  10. Before serving, you can garnish the zucchini with fresh basil leaves for a touch of color and freshness.

Rice-stuffed zucchini can be customized in many ways: adding minced meat, replacing rice with quinoa for a gluten-free version, or enriching the filling with other cheeses or vegetables to your liking.

Curiosity

This dish is very versatile and can be adapted to many regional variations in Italy. In some versions, minced meat is added to the filling, while in others, especially vegetarian versions, they are enriched with other vegetables such as peppers and eggplant. The version I presented to you is a base on which you can build according to your personal taste.