Stuffed Zucchini with Pine Nut Salsa ~ zucchini boats stuffed with a delicious blend of sausage, tomato, cheese, garlic, and breadcrumbs, topped with a lemony pine nut salsa that will knock your socks off! Adapted from Ottolenghi’s Simple.
stuffed zucchini stretches meat for healthier meals
Spring is the time for veggie-centric meals, and this stuffed zucchini is another example of how I’m slowly shifting the balance of my dinners away from meat and more toward plants, without giving up meat entirely.
There’s some crumbled Italian sausage in the stuffing, which makes them even more tempting imo, and turns these easy zucchini boats into a complete meal.
This recipe is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest book, Simple. I’ve had it for months but for some reason I’ve never gotten around to flipping thought it, which isn’t like me at all when it comes to my favorite chef. The mere mention of pine nut salsa sold me on this as my debut recipe from the book.
The pine nut salsa, which gets spooned on the the baked zucchini boats, is a simple (but ingenious) blend of toasted pine nuts, fresh oregano, lemon, and olive oil. I’m always happy to find recipes that call for fresh oregano because I have it in my backyard and it grows like a weed here in Southern California. I wonder how the salsa would work as a sauce for pasta? Might be pretty good 🙂
Sometimes stuffed veggie recipes can be absurdly (unnecessarily) complicated, but don’t worry, this one isn’t. The list of ingredients is short and the dish is easy to assemble.
Just mix up the quick stuffing, and mound it into your hollowed out zucchinis. Pop them in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes and they come out sizzling and delicious.
Tips for stuffing vegetables
- Make sure to hollow out your veggies enough so that you have room for the stuffing, but not so much that it collapses during cooking. Try to leave about 1/2 inch all around.
- Press the stuffing into all corners of the cavity, and press it down firmly. Mound it up slightly because the stuffing will shrink during cooking.
- If you are stuffing a dense vegetable you may want to par-cook it first. Zucchini is soft, and so there’s no need for that here.
- If you’d like to make this ahead, prep and stuff the zucchini, then bake off when you’re ready.
Love stuffed vegetables? Here are some other good ideas
- Spiced Lamb and Couscous Stuffed Peppers ~ a Middle Eastern take on one of my favorite comfort foods, stuffed peppers. The spices in here are fragrant and so delicious.
- Chili Stuffed Acorn Squash ~ a fun way to serve chili, these stuffed squash boats are as cute as they are delish.
- Greek Style Stuffed Artichokes ~ probably the most elegant stuffed veggie ever.
- Stuffed Pepper with Picadillo ~ I’d love to travel the world sampling every culture’s version of stuffed peppers, this is Mexico’s.
tvfgi recommends: enameled cast iron covered casserole
I love this pan. It’s heavy duty and elegant at the same time. The low shallow shape is perfect for stuffed vegetables like today’s zucchini boats. I love it for meals like Greek Moussaka and Creamy Tuscan Chicken Thighs. This one is from a new line of Amazon Basics that rivals the pricier Le Creuset pans. I have both and actually find myself preferring this one, it’s a little sleeker than the French pans.
If you ask me, this pan is an absolute steal at $47 and change from Amazon Prime 🙂
Stuffed Zucchini with Pine Nut Salsa
Ingredients
- 2 large zucchini
- 2 Italian sausage, sweet or hot
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, loosely measured, not packed
- 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup finely diced tomato
- salt and fresh cracked black pepper
- olive oil
- a few Tbsp of crumbled feta cheese
pine nut salsa
- 1/4 cup pine nuts that have been toasted, heat them over medium heat in a skillet for several minutes, stirring constantly until they turn golden
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 475F
- Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise. Use a small spoon to scoop out the inside, leaving 1/2 inch of the zucchini around the edge. Put the scooped zucchini flesh in a clean dish towel and squeeze out the excess moisture. You should have about 1/2 cup left.
- Remove the sausage from the casings and brown in a pan, crumbling it as you cook.
- Mix the zucchini flesh, the sausage crumbles, garlic, egg, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, the tomatoes, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.
- Arrange the zucchini in a large casserole. Drizzle with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and lightly season with salt. Stuff each of the cavities with the stuffing mixture, pressing down to get as much in as possible. Scatter the feta cheese over the top.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until sizzling and golden.
- While the zucchini bakes, make the salsa by mixing together all the ingredients.
- Serve the zucchini with the salsa spooned over the top.
Nutrition
Thanks for pinning!
I love your recipes as they are so current. At the present time I am harvesting zucchinis and do not always know what to do with them all aside from give them to friends. Reading your instructions is an education!!
Wish I could take some off your hands Pat, the supermarket specimens aren’t always the best :/
I made this recipe and thought it was delicious! I would like to make again and freeze but not sure if that would work. Do you happen to know if the zucchini would get too soggy with thawing? I would think so but defer to an expert.
Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved this Susan ~ and yes, you can freeze them, they’ll be fine. Just be sure to cool completely before you put into heavy duty zip lock freezer bags or a freezer container. If you need to stack them, put sheets of parchment or waxed paper in between.
Great appetiser, snackle or side-dish and the flavours were divine! I only had lamb mince (ground lamb) rather than the Italian sausage, not disappointed as the meat combined beautifully with the subtle zucchini, feta and lemon flavours! Will have to try it with chorizo too soon! Cheers
Absolutely marvelous ! Also great to know I could ( if any left 🙂 ) pack it for office the other day !
Hi Sue, I can’t wait to try this Stuffed Zucchini and Lemon Pine Nuts recipe. I just ordered the casserole dish you recommended from Amazon and it says it can be used in the oven up to 400 degrees. Your recipe says to use 475. Did you still use the dish or something else?
I do use the dish under slightly higher heat than they recommend, I was surprised that they say only to 400F. You can definitely lower the oven temp if you’re concerned.
I’m so into this recipe, Sue! I love Ottolenghi recipes as well! So much flavor, and so creative! Thanks for reviewing and adapting this one! Can’t wait to give it a try! Pinned!
I could live on his recipes alone!
Hi Sue! What could be used in place of pine nuts please?
Really any nut you like, or you can leave them out. I’d suggest almonds or walnuts.
Sue, this is an excellent recipe! And when I thought I did almost all I could with the mid-summer excess of zucchini, here comes this delicious stuffing, plus the salsa you make gives all the freshness it needs! I will do it soon and come back to you. Thank you!
I do hope you try this Alexandra, it keeps well, too, I enjoyed it the next day 🙂
Looks very summery and yummy! Love the pine nut salsa!
omg it’s the best salsa :))
i love stuffed zucchini!! This looks like an excellent recipe.
I love that you used Italian sausage in this recipe – I bet it’s absolutely delicious! I could eat a big plate for breakfast this morning and can’t wait to give it a try. Have you ever tried adding a spoon full of marinara on top? So many options for this deliciousness 🙂
Ottolenghi doesn’t use sausage but I felt it needed a little something extra to be a meal, and I was right, this turned out so good. I think the possibilities are endless for topping and yes to the marinara!!