RICOTTA STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Entree - Gluten free - Can be vegetarian (READ footnotes)

Since I had a backache for a few days, I could not check our zucchini plants accurately and I knew that I would have found at least one oversize zucchini. Yesterday I noticed the smaller one and thought "darn, a baseball bat! I knew it would have happened"... while harvesting it, I noticed the monster!!!!!!!!!! So then came the question... how do I fix the monster?? I opened the refrigerator and pulled out some homemade ricotta, some salame and parmigiano; went to the garden and grabbed some fresh parsley; got some tomato sauce and..... By the way... zucchini weight is in grams, for those of you not used to that system, it's 1.53lbs and 3.55lbs!!!

4 zucchini
1 container ricotta cheese, well drained
4 oz salami, diced
1/2 cup Parmigiano, grated
1 1/2 cup Italian tomato sauce
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
Italian sea salt


Cut zucchini in half, lengthwise, then remove its pulp and set it aside.

In a big bowl mix ricotta, salami, parmigiano, parsley and season with salt. Pay attention to the amount of salt, since you have salami and parmigiano.

Stuff your zucchini with this mixture.

Put a large saucepan with lid on medium-high heat and warm up the tomato sauce, arrange the zucchini in it and cook them, over medium heat cover with a lid, until they are soft.

This recipe serves 4.

- You can chop and sautee the pulp in olive oil with a little bit of onion, chopped as well. Let it cool down and add to the ricotta stuffing. Otherwise, as I did, you can freeze it and use it for soups in winter, when it's so hard to find some good ones (even because it's not their season ;-) )- As pasta sauce, I used Pomodorina, a ready to go sauce that we carry and is very very good!!
- You can cook them in the oven, too, if you like it.
- You can eat them at room temperature, too.
- You can freeze them, once cooked, and warm them in the microwave or in the oven, when needed.
- You can prepare them in advance and cook them when you need them; in this case you have to keep them refrigerated for not more than one day (because of the ricotta, that's very delicate) or freeze them.
- It's gluten free and, if salami is left out, it's vegetarian.