I had a big ol’ zucchini from our neighbor that was just calling to be stuffed.  I thought something simple, bround beef and a bit of cheese, some fresh herbs, would be a nice filling.  And maybe some rice on the side…

But there was that basket of tomatoes…

I didn’t want to make a tomato sauce, per se, but I did want to use some of them.

A recipe was born!

Stuffed Zucchini

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 5 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes, minced
• asiago cheese (slices and grated)
• 1 egg
• fresh herbs (basil, oregano, parsley)
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1 cup beef broth
• salt and pepper, to taste
• zucchini

Hollow out zucchini for stuffing, leaving 1/4″ shell.  Add 2 tbsp (approx) shredded asiago cheese to zucchini.  Set aside.

Cook onion in a bit of olive oil until translucent.  Add garlic, then ground beef.  Cook.  Remove half the beef/onion mixture and allow to cool, a bit.  When cool, add 1 egg, salt, pepper, fresh herbs and mix well.  Stuff into zucchini on top of cheese.

Meanwhile, add tomatoes, salt, pepper, and herbs to pan with ground beef.  Cook well.  Add red wine and continue cooking.  Stir in rice, herbs, beef broth, and salt and pepepr.  Bring to boil.

Place zucchini atop rice mixture, cover, reduce heat, and let cook about 20 minutes, or until rice is cooked through.

Remove cover, place sliced cheese atop zucchini and recover for cheese to melt.

Uncover and serve.

It really was an easy meal and came out pretty good.  I probably could have seasoned the stuffing beef a bit more – maybe added some tomato paste or chopped olives, or something.  It was good, but not spectacular.

The rice, on the other hand, was stellar!  It more than made up for the blander zucchini filling – and once they were cut up, things all mixed together, anyway.

I have some couscous from Sardinia that I almost used for this, but decided I needed something a bit more special than stuffed zucchini.

More ideas to come.

And peach pie.