If there is something really amazing in life in the Mediterranean (apart from the sea and sun of course, right), then it’s the enormous amount of veggies-fruits on every corner. And that’s how I found these little, round zucchini. You won’t see them in my hometown, so my experience is nonexistent, however it is very important part in the Mediterranean kitchen. So the time came up and a few of them ended up in my kitchen too.

The first time I prepared these zucchini, we were still living in Malta. And since there has to be almost everything imported, I wanted to do something local. For filling, I used bulgur and a local sheep cheese Ġbejna. It’s one of the delicacies that this island offers in different variants. Fresh or tal-ilma, dried moxxa, bajda or t’Għawdex and finally in a pepper crust called  tal-bża. Nowadays you can also come across with cheeses made from less traditional cow or goad milk, eventually flavored with herbs, peppers, tomatoes, or those in olive oil…But my personal favorite is naturally dried sheep cheese. And that is the exactly the one that I used in my recipe. However you can even use cheese feta or fresh sheep or goat cheese. Don’t be afraid to support your local farmer! There are no boundaries between fantasy and taste.

And what about you? Do you have any favorite zucchini recipe?

Yield: 6 zucchini

Mediterranean stuffed zucchini

Print

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Bake Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup of bulgur
• pinch of cumin, turmeric, ground chilli, salt and pepper
• 1 cup of water, boiled
• 6 round zucchini
• 1 spoon of olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 5 dried tomatoes, chopped
• 50g cheese Ġbejna, diced (or feta, fresh goad cheese...)
• 1 handful of parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

BULGUR:

1. Put the bulgur into a smaller pot, add spice to taste and boiling water. Mix it all and cover it with a lid. With occasional mixing, let the bulgur approx. 20 minutes to swell.

ZUCCHINI:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
2. Chop the top part of the zucchini and put it aside for later. Pull out the insides with a spoon carefully not to damage the sides. Chop finely the insides of the zucchini.
3. On a pan, preheat oil and fry the shallot. As soon as the shallot turns golden, add garlic. Finally, add the insides of the zucchini and toast the whole mixture until it all softens.
4. As soon as it softens, put the pan off of the stove, add the swollen bulgur, dried tomatoes and cheese. Mix it all, add the parsley and mix it all over again.
5. Fill the empty zucchini with the bulgur mixture slightly over the top and cover them with their chopped top parts.
6. Put the zucchini in a baking mould, pour in a little bit of olive oil and 100 ml of cold water. Bake approx one hour till they soften.

Notes

Tip: Zucchini prepared like this, are eaten all even with the skin. They are very soft and that way we get all the nutrients and taste experience. The only part that has to be parted is the stem.

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