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.