Large zucchini stuffed with ground turkey, mushrooms, tomatoes, basil, rosemary, and Parmesan cheese.
If you grow zucchini in your garden, and you’re the kind of wonderful person who brings your neighbors a share of your bounty, and such bounty includes foot-long several pound zucchinis, might I suggest that you include a recipe to accompany such a welcome gift? I’m not kidding!
Seriously, we have such a wonderful neighbor, Pat, who not only brings over freshly picked, glorious produce, but tried and true recipes as well.
The following stuffed zucchini recipe is adapted from one that Pat brought us last week, along with a 2-pound zucchini, and we loved it.
It tastes like it is stuffed with Italian pork sausage, but the stuffing is actually lean ground turkey with garlic, herbs, and mushrooms. Enjoy!
Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 55 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 zucchini about 12 inches long, or 3-4 medium zucchini
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 2 diced tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons pepper
Method
1 Prep zucchini: Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.
2 Sauté onion, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini insides: Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides, and sauté another 2 minutes.
3 Brown the ground turkey: In a separate skillet heat a Tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat. Add the ground turkey. Lightly brown the turkey, stirring only occasionally. After the turkey browns on one side, stir it so that it has a chance to brown on other sides. Cook until the ground turkey is lightly browned, about 6 minutes.
4 Make stuffing: Stir the onion and mushroom mixture in with the ground turkey. Add the wine. Stir in tomato, basil and rosemary and cook 1 minute longer. Drain any excess fat. Remove mixture from heat and set it aside.
When mixture has cooled, add cheese, egg, salt and pepper.
5 Stuff zucchini shells and bake: Fill zucchini shells with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves in pan and bake at 375°F for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove zucchini from pan and serve while hot.
