Stuffed Zucchini

By curtiswren

This is a delicious dish made with lots of vegetables and Italian sausage. It is certainly one that will impress your guests.

Ingredients

• 4 to 6 large zucchinis
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper (optional)
• 1 sweet onion
• Green onion (2 bundles)
• 1 small can of water chestnuts already sliced
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 bag of shredded Italian cheese
• Italian or seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 lb of Italian sausage (remove casing if encased as links)
• Salt and pepper (Start with teaspoon)
• 1 table spoon of olive oil

Details

Level of difficulty Average
Cost Average budget

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Step 2

Rinse all vegetables. Cut 5 of the 6 Zucchinis in half – lengthwise to make 10 half boats. Reserve the 6th zucchini to be diced along with the next 6 ingredients of your ingredient shopping list.
Use a regular metal table spoon to scoop out the insides of the zucchini halves to make the zucchini boats that will be stuffed later. You must be very careful not to break the zucchini halves as this is very easy to do if this is your first time. The insides or filling go into the large mixing bowl. Repeat this process with each of the 10 halves of zucchini. Align the 10 zucchini boats in the 9x13 dish and place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. This process softens the zucchini prior to stuffing

Step 3

If Italian sausage is encased, remove the casing using a knife to cut a slit and peal off the encasing from all of the sausage links. Place sausage in skillet and brown the meat. Once the meat is browned, remove the meat from the skillet and set aside.

Step 4

Dice all of the remaining vegetables—celery can be sliced into quarter inch slices and the green onion also sliced into quarter inch slices.
Remove the zucchini boats from the oven after cooking for 15 to 20 minutes.

Step 5

Add all of the cut vegetables to the mixing bowl with the zucchini fillings. Add the minced garlic. Open the can of sliced water chestnuts. Drain all the juice and add the sliced water chestnuts to the mixture. Reheat skillet. You may add olive oil or there may still be oil remaining from the cooked sausage. Dump all of the mixture into the same skillet used to brown the meat.
You will cook the vegetables until they start to create their own juices and become tender for at least 10 minutes. Add bread crumbs to the mixture – about 2/3 cup. Add the cooked sausage back to the skillet with the mixture of vegetables. Stir and combine.
The bread crumbs will soak up the juice and the mixture will begin to thicken into a stuffing like consistency. The mixture should cook for at least another 5 minutes stirring constantly.

Step 6

Fill the zucchini boats with the stuffing mixture. Cover the stuffed zucchini boats with the Italian cheese and place back into the oven. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until all of the cheese has melted. Remove casserole dish from the oven.