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Have a few extra-large zucchinis? Stuff them with Italian sausage, onions, garlic, tomato, and fresh breadcrumbs, and bake. (Swap in medium-sized zucchinis, too!)

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

Fellow gardeners, you know this tale well. You step away from your garden bed for one minute (or a weekend) and come back to find a monster zucchini hiding in the greenery.
Sometimes the plant warns you. Regular zucchini production starts slowing down, odd for early summer. The reason? All of the plant’s attention is going to feeding that one humongous, baseball bat of a zuke.
Fortunately, those ginormous zucchini are perfect for stuffing!

How To Make Stuffed Zucchini
Making stuffed zucchini is easy. You just cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, and scoop out the insides, leaving a shell to stuff with whatever your heart desires.
This week my heart desired Italian sausage, so my friends, this is what we are using to stuff this particular zucchini.
We brown some Italian sausage, onions, garlic, and some of the zucchini insides, and mix it with fresh breadcrumbs, basil, tomatoes, oregano, and Parmesan cheese. One egg is all you need to bind the stuffing together.
Into the oven go these stuffed zucchini boats to bake for 40 minutes. Yum!
Make-Ahead Stuffed Zucchini
Need to make ahead? You can easily stuff the zucchini a day ahead of time. Just stuff the zucchini, keep it chilled, then bake right before serving.
This is a meal in and of itself—no need to serve it with anything else.
By the way, zucchini tends to become watery and mushy when frozen, so we don’t recommend freezing this recipe.

From the editors of Simply Recipes

Swaps and Substitutions
Smaller zucchini: Use 3 to 4 normal-sized zucchinis in place of the giant one. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the zucchini is tender when pierced.
Vegetarian: Swap the sausage for sautéed chopped mushrooms.
Dairy-free: Swap the Parmesan for nutritional yeast, or leave it out.
Gluten-free: Use gluten-free breadcrumbs, or leave out.
More Ways to Make Stuffed Zucchini

Updated August 18, 2020 : We spiffed up this post with some additional tips to make sure its foolproof. No changes to the original recipe. Enjoy!

Giant Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Recipe

You can stuff the zucchini a day ahead of time and bake right before serving.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 large zucchini, 12 to 14 inches long (about 1 1/4 to 2 pounds) or 3 to 4 medium zucchini
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 slices bread, pulsed in food processor or blender to make fresh breadcrumbs (about 1 cup)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon salt (less or more to taste)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375°F.
2 Cook the sausage: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium skillet on medium heat. Add the sausage, and gently cook until it is mostly (but not completely) cooked through.
Stir frequently and break up the sausage into smaller pieces while it cooks. Remove to a large bowl and set aside.

3 Prep the zucchini: Cut the zucchini in half. Use a metal spoon to scoop out the insides of the zucchini, leaving the zucchini shell about 1/4-inch thick. Remove and discard any thick seeds from the insides you’ve scooped out.
Chop up about a cup of the remaining zucchini flesh. (Whatever remains beyond a cup use for another purpose, discard, or compost.)

4 Cook the onions and garlic: You should have 1 tablespoon of fat in the pan (rendered from the sausage). If not, add more olive oil so that you have at least a tablespoon of fat in the pan, and heat on medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.
Add the chopped zucchini and cook a minute or two more, remove from the skillet and add it to the bowl of sausage.

5 Make the stuffing: Add the rest of the stuffing ingredients to the sausage and onions.

6 Stuff the zucchini and bake: Place the zucchini halves in a baking dish and add the stuffing. (At this point you can make ahead, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.) Add 1/4-inch of water to the bottom of the pan, which will help zucchini cook evenly and prevent the bottom of it from drying out too much in the oven.
Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes. Let sit to cool briefly before serving.

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Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family’s recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
More from Elise LEGGI TUTTO

1 Heat your oven: Preheat the oven to 350°F
2 Roll out and blind bake the pie crust: Lightly flour your countertop and roll your pie dough into a 12-inch circle. Place the pie dough into your pie plate.
Line with aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill to the top with ceramic pie weights, rice, dry beans, or granulated sugar.
Bake the pie dough at 350°F for 50 minutes to 1 hour, removing the foil liner with the weights during the last 10 minutes of baking time.
Once baked, remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

3 Toast the coconut flakes: Scatter the coconut flakes onto a sheet pan. Try to break up any large clumps, which prevent even toasting. Bake the coconut on the middle rack of your oven for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula to toss the coconut flakes. Arrange them into an even layer and return the pan to the oven to bake for another 5 minutes.
Continue this process, once more, checking after 3 minutes instead of 5. Once the coconut is evenly browned, remove the pan from the oven and allow the coconut to cool completely.
Toasting the coconut can be done a week in advance and the flakes stored in a sealed container at room temperature.

4 Begin making the coconut custard: In a mixing bowl, whip the egg yolks and whole eggs together with a hand mixer on high. Sift 1/2 cup of the sugar, cornstarch, and ground cinnamon into the bowl over the beaten eggs and whip until lemony yellow in color—about 2 minutes. Set aside.
In a saucepan, stir together the coconut milk, the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, and the salt together.
Heat the mixture over medium heat, whisk constantly to dissolve the sugar until the mixture begins to steam.
5 Temper the eggs: Slowly add 1 cup of the hot milk to the whipped egg mixture in a slow stream while whisking constantly. This will bring the eggs to the same temperature as the milk and prevent curdling. The mixture will foam up a bit.

6 Combine the tempered eggs and the remaining milk: Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the pot with the milk, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, which should take about 2-3 minutes. Incorporate any foam that may form on the surface by whisking in a figure-eight motion.
The mixture should begin to thicken almost immediately after it comes to a boil. Once you see the custard has thickened, and bubbles pop slowly on the surface, remove it from the heat and check for proper consistency.
The custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon. If you run your finger through the custard, it will leave a clean line and won’t rejoin itself. Once thickened, remove it from the heat.

7 Flavor the custard and fill the pie crust: Stir the butter and vanilla extract into the hot custard. When the butter is completely melted and blended, stir in 1 3/4 cups of the toasted coconut.
Pour the warm custard into the pre-baked pie shell and press a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard. This keeps the surface of the custard from forming a skin as it chills in the refrigerator.
Refrigerate the pie for 6 to 8 hours or until it’s completely chilled.

8 Make the whipped cream: Just before you’re ready to serve, add the heavy whipping cream to a mixing bowl. Beat the cream on medium-high speed until it begins to foam.
While beating, gradually sprinkle the sugar over the cream. Continue beating the cream until semi-stiff peaks form. The peaks should hold their shape when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.
7 Finish the pie: Remove and discard the plastic wrap from the pie. Scoop the whipped cream onto the filled pie. Use the back of a large spoon to spread the whipped cream onto its surface. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of toasted coconut over the whipped cream.

8 Serve and enjoy: Refrigerate the pie until you’re ready to serve. The Coconut Cream Pie tastes best if eaten within 48 hours, but it will last for up to 3 days.
Leftovers! Store leftovers in the refrigerator. Press a piece of wax paper against any exposed coconut custard. LEGGI TUTTO