{"id":22049,"date":"2019-07-21T15:34:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T13:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/?p=22049"},"modified":"2024-06-08T14:36:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T12:36:53","slug":"bolognese-stuffed-zucchini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tortelliniandco.com\/en\/bolognese-stuffed-zucchini\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolognese stuffed zucchini, a traditional recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

This recipe for Bolognese stuffed zucchini has the flavor of family dishes.
\nIn the first twenty years of my life, I ate them so often that, perhaps for a reason of cosmic balance, I cooked this dish on very few occasions in the two following decades.
\nThen, I made peace with the absences and welcomed cooking into my life.
\nAnd I started cooking and eating them. Again.<\/p>\n

I always considered the execution of this recipe easy until my friend Anna said to me she tied the zucchini with kitchen twine. Kitchen twine?<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll tell you what happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

The method behind the recipe<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

I was writing my first cookbook, a recipe book where – together with a journalist friend – I collected the flavors of home, and those had impressed me during my travels.<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember I cooked all the recipes for the book nonstop for months.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point, tired and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I asked some friends for help.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking that stuffed zucchini (empty-fill-cook) was an easy recipe, I entrusted it to my Tuscan friend Anna. Who, needless to say, struggled with it. That episode was enlightening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, when I write a recipe text, I try to describe every step.<\/span><\/p>\n

Above all, I want to write about the automatic gestures I know and make automatically because I have seen them done so many times.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same actions are unknown to those people who are not familiar with the recipe.<\/span><\/p>\n

I still smile, thinking of those poor bound and gagged zucchini.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this is an easy recipe. One to make and make again.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would be sorry if, little by little, a good, traditional dish was confused with<\/span> Meghan Markle’s zucchini a la bolognese recipe<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bolognese<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Stuffed<\/p>\n

Bolognese stuffed zucchini: the recipe<\/strong><\/h4>\n

That country dish is also made in Romagna, especially on the border between Bologna and Romagna, where flavors, people, and stories mix and mingle.
\nThis is one of the preparations that most reminds me of Grandma Sara.
\nIt was a dish she loved and cooked often. For cooks of her generation, it was a quick and easy way to put the family on the table.<\/p>\n

Today, it is a dish for special occasions or eating at restaurants.<\/p>\n

In Italy, I recommend using the bolognese zucchini variety for the recipe. In fact, the bolognese zucchini is light, short, and pot-bellied, looking like it was born to be hollowed out and stuffed. If you live abroad, try dark green ones, which are longer and thinner. Cut them into two or three parts; emptying them without breaking the outside should be easier.<\/p>\n

The meat filling is the same or very similar to that of tortellini and you should mix with it with egg and grated Parmigiano. The one at my house, with Italian sausage instead of prosciutto crudo, is more flavorful.<\/p>\n

As I empty the zucchini, I set aside the flesh, which does not go into the stuffing but is also not thrown away: I use it for other preparations, such as an omelet or a pasta sauce.<\/h5>\n

The stuffed zucchini cook for a few minutes in the pan before continuing their journey into the arms of the tomato sauce.<\/p>\n

Stuffed zucchini are served at room temperature when the weather is mild or warm. In winter, serve them piping hot. Excuse me? No zucchini in the winter season? True. Grandma, during the summer, with the last harvest, would prepare supplies for the winter (storing the pans in the big freezer of the home cellar).<\/p>\n

The zucchini are different sizes, and the emptying hand is different. However, with what is left over from the stuffing, and something always has to be left over, you make the meatballs that accompany the stuffed zucchini.<\/p>\n

Buona cucina, Monica<\/p>\n

Cook with me<\/strong><\/h5>\n