Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Zucchine Ripiene con Ricotta

I cook a lot of zucchini. I like it. It’s versatile and abundant. I’ve tried stuffed zucchini a few different ways over the years but have never found a stuffing I would repeat until now. This zucchine ripiene comes from the article about Calabrian ricotta in the September issue of Saveur. Sadly, I was not able to obtain Calabrian ricotta. I didn’t make my own ricotta either. And, Central Market had no fresh ricotta ready and waiting when I needed it although they sometimes stock it. I should have planned ahead and tried a little harder to locate some, but I settled for packaged ricotta made from part skim milk and cream. It was good as far as packaged ones go and had no stabilizers or preservatives.

Once you have the best ricotta you can get, the next most important thing is to properly pre-cook the zucchini. The instructions suggest broiling them for five minutes. My oven was in use while I was prepping everything for this dish, so I cooked the zucchini on top of the stove in the sauté pan used for the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. You want to be sure the zucchini are cooked to the desired level before stuffing them because they really won’t cook much further once placed under the broiler for the final browning.

This stuffing of ricotta, pecorino, tomatoes, onion, garlic, parsley, and oregano was a summery delight. Mint is also included in the stuffing. I used a small amount of fresh mint from my herb garden rather than dried, but it was a little out of place for me. Next time, I’ll leave it out and maybe garnish with fresh basil instead. Depending on the size of the zucchini you use, one stuffed half can be a meal all by itself. Or, since the stuffing holds up well, the zucchini halves could be cut into smaller pieces just before serving. I’d love to try this again with really fresh, possibly homemade, ricotta. But, even with the packaged variety, this was my favorite stuffed zucchini to date.


17 comments:

  1. I loved the article on ricotta. I want to find a farmhouse in Italy where they make it traditionally and eat is fresh like the writer did.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucky you come November! That will be a great quest--maybe you'll find some truffles too. (will it even be truffle season when you visit Italy?)

    ReplyDelete
  3. that ricotta article was another winner in my book. saveur does something to me like nothing else i read. i get the chills and feel choked up after reading some of their stuff. best food magazine out there - hands down.

    that recipe looked delicious too! yours did it major justice. i think i need to do this one soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Saveur is the best. The topics, the writing, all good. If only I could have used 'real' ricotta here!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I recently fell in love zucchini. I cannot believe I made it 28 years with nary a single zucchini recipe in my (admittedly very shallow) repetoir!

    I cannot wait to try this one. Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You zucchinis are already making me hungry for lunch....and I just finished having breakfast!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Perfect ~~ I can see why they are your fave! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. These look delicious. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 28 years with no zucchini recipe is amazing!

    This is a great stuffing. If anyone makes this with mint included, let me know what you think.

    ReplyDelete
  10. yeah, i can eat zucchini just about every way under the sun. this looks particularly enticing. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. This looks great - Thank you for sharing this. I love to cook with zucchini and escpecially love all things stuffed!! This is a winner and will be a hit next time the peoples come over for dinner!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. These look really tasty, Lisa. Your posts are so inspirational!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lisa-I'm in Austin, TX too! I just finished reading that article about ricotta cheese in Saveur this afternoon and was thinking about trying that zucchini recipe. After seeing your photos, I definitely will try that recipe soon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. your blog is just absolutely beautiful
    great food
    really well done all around

    me? i'm a sheeps milk ricotta fanatic

    ReplyDelete
  15. Fantastic zucchini dish.
    My mouth is watering.
    Great idea to use that delicious fresh ricotta. Stuffing vegetables is so attractive.
    Stacey Snacks

    ReplyDelete
  16. That looks delicious. Roasted zucchini with ricotta. YUM For some reason I could get enough zucchini and eggplant this year. I ate A LOT of it!

    ReplyDelete

Blogging tips