Skip to main content

Rice stuffed round zucchini (courgettes) with cherry tomatoes and basil

 The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine
I'm back!!!!!!! I've been so busy cooking around ... I had to give up updating my blog for a few months. In the meanwhile I have collected an incredible amount on nice recipes to share with you ;)
A while ago I've tried something special with round courgettes and rice...added cherry tomatoes (pachino) and basil... here is the delicious result of my experiment!

Round zucchini ou "courgettes" are usually stuffed with meat, this is a nice variation suitable for our vegetarians or vegans friends, only rice, tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil, garlic and courgettes of course, grated parmesan cheese is an optional but it gives a great taste to the filling, I suggest you to add it! It is a colourful, healthy, complete meal, easy to prepare and quickly done. Let's start!

Serving 4
Ingredients:
4 round zucchini (courgettes)
16 cherry tomatoes (I prefer organic)
8-10 leaves of fresh basil
1 or 2 garlic cloves (depending on your taste)
6 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil
6 Tbs of rice (Carnaroli or any rice for risotto, do not use Basmati or Thai rice!)
4 Tbs of grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano 
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 glass of white dry wine (optional)

Instructions:
1) Wash and dry the courgettes. Cut the upper part of each zucchini and set aside, with a knife and a spoon carve the pulp of the zucchini, set the empy zucchini aside.
2) Cut the pulp in very small pieces, mix it with the rice, half of the cherry tomatoes diced. Add salt , pepper and 6 leaves of fresh basil cut in pieces. Pour 4 Tbs of olive oil in a saucepan, warm up and add the rice mixture. Cook for about 5 minutes. Cut the fire, add the grated Parmigiano and set aside
3)  Place the 4 zucchini on an oiled oven tray (or parchment paper), fill the zucchini with the cooked rice mix, gently cover with the top, place the remaing rice and cherry tomatoes around the zucchini, drizzle the zucchini with some olive oil, 1/4 glass of white dry wine. Add salt and pepper, place in the oven to 180C° (350F°) for about 45 minutes.
Here are your nicely cooked zucchini, place each zucchini on a serving plate with some rice and tomatoes. Enjoy this tasteful simple recipe... buon appetito!

Comments

  1. These were amazing! Am cooking them again right now! Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Neapolitan "Sfogliatella Frolla" (sfogliatella frolla napoletana)

 The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine I miss Italy tremendously... so today I will propose you something very traditional from Naple: the Sfogliatella! Neapolitan most famous pastry:"Sfogliatella"comes in two styles: "riccia", with a crust of many crisp, papery layers, and "frolla", with a thicker pastry crust. The riccia's tender exterior (made with flour, water, and lard) consists of concentric squashed rings. The frolla shell (made with flour, sugar, and butter or lard) is like the best sweet piecrust. Both hold fillings of sweetened ricotta and cooked semolina flavored with vanilla, "millefiori" flavour and mixed candied fruits. I propose you the Sfogliatella frolla, much easier to make at home....but terrific as well as the Riccia! The filling is, anyway, always the same. Makes about 20 Sfogliatelle Ingredients for the pastry crust: 500gr Pastry flour 180gr

Pastiera Napoletana, Neapolitan Easter Grain Pie

 The content and pictures of this post are copyright registered & protected ©myitaliancuisine The Pastiera is the most famous Neapolitan Easter traditional pastry. Prepared since centuries, in the region of Campania almost every family own his special Pastiera recipe. It's a pie crust with a filling of boiled grains (grano cotto), milk, ricotta, candied fruits (cedro, zucca e arancia candita), orange blossoms water (acqua di fiori d'arancio). The  Pastiera is so famous to deserve its own website: www.pastiera.com, I have got Pastiera from the Italian bakeries since I was a child.... and now I've finally baked it myself, a few times, trying to get the good recipe.... finally I think I got it! This  is my own Pstiera recipe: the crust is the one I use for crust pies in general, the traditional recipe uses lard I prefer to use butter, you can use what you like. The canned cooked grains are a must, you will normally find it in the italian grocery stores, as wel

Croissants with apricot jam filling (cornetti alla marmellata di albicocche)

These croissants briochés with apricot jam filling are perfect for the traditional Italian breakfast: Cornetto e Cappuccino ! WOOOW I feel back in Italy already! Freshly baked they are delicious and the good baking smell will go all over your house...so what are you waiting to bake your own cornetti? The basic dough is the same of the French braided brioche Ingredients: 1French brioche dough  see recipe here 1 cup of apricot jam 1 beaten egg for the glaze 1 tbs of milt for the glaze few tbs of pearl sugar for decoration Instructions: With a rolling pin start to roll out your brioche dough till you get a large circle. Try the get a perfect circle like the one above. Cut the circle in 16 triangles. Make a small cut at the base of the triangle. Fill with a teaspoon of jam. Roll the croissant starting from the large base. Roll all the croissants.  Place them on an oven tray with parchment paper and make them rest for one hour. In the meanwhile p