Stuffed Round Zucchini with Fried Rice

There are people who do it with tomatoes, but I really feel like this recipe belongs to zucchini.

Ingredients for 4 Servings

4 medium round zucchini
EVO oil for drizzling the skin
1 cup rice (200g)
The zucchini cores scooped out from the 4 zucchini
250g ground meat
1 small onion or garlic
Half a glass of white wine
1 large egg (to bind the filling)
10 to 20 green olives, depending on how much you like them
Salt and black pepper

Time needed: 1 hour.

Preparing the Zucchini

Let’s start cutting the caps, the last 1 or 2 inches of each zucchini, like making a little cap, and set it aside. Scoop out the inside of the zucchini with a spoon, leaving more or less a 1/4 inch wall to hold the shape.

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Set the flesh aside, add salt, and let it sit so it can drain the excess water. We will squeeze it before adding it to the pan. Salt the inside of the empty zucchini, place them upside down on a paper towel for ten minutes to drain excess water here too.

Making the Filling

While we wait for the zucchini to drain, let’s cook the rice as written on the packaging (usually it is 10 mins in boiling and salted water).

Let’s make the filling now. In a large heated pan, toss the ground meat along with the pitted green olives, and stir till golden. Then add the squeezed zucchini flesh and the white onion and stir till they lose all the water and start drying out.

When we notice everything is turning golden, we can add the rice and the white wine. It is really important to have the heat on high when we do that, because we want the wine to deglaze and just give us the amazing flavor without turning bitter (it happens if the heat is too low).

Here you can start preheating the oven at 350°F (180°C).

Once all the wine is deglazed, we are basically done. Turn off the heat and bind everything with the parmesan and the egg, then fill the cups and close them with the “hat”.

Baking the Zucchini

Place them in a casserole, spray or drizzle a bit of EVO oil on the surface, and let them cook for 35 to 40 minutes.

Trick: if you can, place a small cup or something similar (please always check if it can go in the oven) filled with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water in the oven. This will create steam that will help the zucchini skin to soften without making it mushy (it might happen if we put the water right into the casserole as the bottom part of the zucchini would be in the water).

Bake them for 35 minutes, then let them sit outside for 5 minutes and enjoy!