Grilled Stuffed Zucchini recipe – bacon, mushrooms, parmesan

Originally published August 2012, I’m bringing this back for those of you harvesting zucchinis!

How are your gardens doing? If you’ve got a good amount of zucchini popping up, you may want to check out this recipe that re-kindled my love for zucchini.

We started with a recipe from Vegetables from an Italian Garden: Season-by-Season Recipes (Amazon), one of my favorite Italian cookbooks. And we modified it to fit our preferences – including adding bacon and grilling, instead of roasting, because it’s just too stinkin’ hot to be turning on the oven.

INGREDIENTS

6-7 zucchinis, sliced in half, lengthwise – We used two mondo zucchinis.

1 cup of finely diced onions 

1/2 cup cooked, diced bacon – Original recipe called for ham.

2 tomatoes, diced finely

2 3/4 cups mushrooms, sliced or diced

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs – We just food processed day-old bread

2/3 cup grated fresh parmesan cheese – We used Pecorino Romano, which we get at Costco for a great price.

1/2 cup parsley

2 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

1.) Wash and half your zucchinis. Toss them into salted, boiling water and let them cook for about 10 minutes. They should just be starting to get tender.

2.) While your zucchini slices are boiling, prep all your stuffing ingredients. Dice everything up. Cook your bacon if you haven’t already.

3.) Once zucchini is al dente (slightly tender) drain it well. Lay them out on a cutting board and let them cool so you can work with them.

4.) Scoop out the flesh of the zucchini with a small spoon. It should scoop out pretty easily, most of it will be seeds.

5.) We re-used the skillet we cooked our bacon in and drained the excess bacon grease (if you don’t want to do this, use a fresh skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil).  Saute the onion and garlic. Once your onion is softened, add tomatoes and simmer it down a bit. Add mushrooms and saute until soft.

6.) Take sauteed mixture from skillet and pour into mixing bowl. Add egg, fresh bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Stir well. It should have a creamy texture.

7.) Meanwhile, spray a grill basket or a grill pizza pan with non-stick olive oil spray. We used a round grill pizza pan – it worked well because it has holes in the bottom which were great for circulation on the grill.

8.) Lay out zucchini halves, skin side down and spoon the stuffing into the zucchini.

9.) Put stuffed zucchini on grill, on medium heat (about 350-400 degrees) for about 30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it. It should get nice and crispy on top. As long as the zucchini is cooked enough for your liking, it’s ready to eat.

For those of you who are visual learners, here are some photos of the process:

Boil the zucchini for about 10 minutes until they start getting tender.

We prepped all our ingredients while the bacon cooked and zucchini boiled. I think you could more of what you like and less of what you don’t.
We used day old bread in the food processor for our fresh bread crumbs.

Scoop out the center flesh from the boiled zucchinis and set out on grill pan.
Something like this: Weber Style 6435 Professional-Grade Grill Pan (Amazon) would work perfectly!

Fill the hollowed zucchini halves with filling.

Place on grill and let it cook for about 30 minutes!

Thanks to Vegetables from an Italian Garden: Season-by-Season Recipes (Amazon) for the inspiration!

p.s. Make EXTRA filling and you could use it for a frittata or omelet for breakfast the following morning – would make two great meals and only one prep!

Let me know if you make these and tell me what you think!