Here's a delicious way to solve the problem of those too-big zucchini ballooning in your garden at the end of the summer: zucchini boats baked and stuffed with lamb, feta, pine nuts, tomatoes, and other Mediterranean flavors!
Ingredients
- extra large zucchini: 1 piece (halved lengthwise)
- olive oil: 1 Tbsp
- sweet onion: 1 piece (chopped)
- garlic: 1 Tbsp (chopped)
- ground lamb: 1 pound
- coarse salt: (to taste)
- ground black pepper: (to taste)
- tomato sauce: 1 can (16 ounce can)
- tomatoes: 2 piece (chopped)
- crumbled feta cheese: 0.75 cup
- pine nuts: 0.5 cup
- mint leaves: 0.25 cup
- water: 0.25 cup
- mint leaves: 0.25 cup
- seasoned bread crumbs: 0.75 cup
- mozzarella cheese: 0.75 cup (shredded)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
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Use a melon baller to separate and remove seeds and pulp separately from the zucchini, carving out each half and leaving about a half-inch shell. Chop zucchini pulp into pieces about 1/4 inch in diameter. Discard seeds.
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Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil until tender, about 5 minutes. Add ground lamb; continue to cook and stir until lamb is lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir chopped zucchini into the lamb mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer mixture until the zucchini is hot, about 3 minutes. Drain excess grease. Season lamb mixture with coarse salt and black pepper.
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Remove skillet from heat. Stir tomato sauce, tomatoes, feta cheese, pine nuts, and 1/4 cup mint leaves through the lamb mixture; spoon into the zucchini halves. Put stuffed zucchini halves into a large baking dish. Pour water into the baking dish.
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Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Mix bread crumbs and mozzarella cheese in a bowl. Sprinkle 1/4 cup mint leaves over the zucchini and top with the bread crumb mixture. Continue baking until the top is crusty and browned, about 10 minutes more.
