Meatball-Stuffed Zucchini in Tomato Sauce

At least once before the end of summer, my mom would make stuffed zucchini. She used smallish to medium-size zucchini, filled them with seasoned breadcrumbs and baked them. We ate them alongside mozzarella and other cheeses, or with sautéed veal, or sometimes with a chicken from the nearby rosticceria.

Every so often she and my aunts would make an entire lunch or dinner of stuffed vegetables ~ zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, even onions. Some of the vegetables would be stuffed with rice, others with breadcrumbs, and others with meat. They were served tepid or at room temperature, perfect on hot days or on cooler evenings in late summer. This was hands-down my favorite meal at the beach. Who knows why ~ maybe just the satisfaction of digging into a vegetable turned into a vessel for something else.

What appealed to me most were the zucchini, which were not cut in half for stuffing, but neatly hollowed out. This is not difficult to do, but it helps if you have a corer of some sort, or a slim vegetable peeler with a pointed tip.

There is a tool called a zucchini corer, which I don't have but which I may have to get. It's longer and thinner than the all-purpose corer that I used and that you see in the picture above. A slimmer corer means there's less chance of breaking through the wall of the squash (it happens).

My mother baked her stuffed zucchini "in bianco," which is to say, without sauce, just a good drizzle of olive oil and maybe a splash each of water and wine. In The Glorious Vegetables of Italy I included a similar recipe for vegetarian stuffed summer vegetables, but I baked them in sauce. The other day, while reading my friend Maureen Abood's beautiful blog, Rose Water & Orange Blossoms, I came across her recipe for Lebanese meat-stuffed summer squash in tomato broth, and had an immediate craving.

So I came up with this version, in which I filled the squash with a mixture of seasoned beef and bread ~ essentially a meatball mixture ~ and baked them in a light tomato sauce. I used a variety of summer squashes that I found at the farmers' market. I hollowed out the long ones, and scooped out the insides of the small globes but left the bottoms intact so that I could fill them and bake them upright.How were they? Just as good as they look, though my daughter felt they would have benefited from a sprinkle of Parmigiano cheese. People complain about the "glut" of zucchini at the end of summer but I can't imagine such a thing. It's truly a vegetable I never get tired of. So if you happen to have more than you need or want, please feel free to send them my way.

MEATBALL-STUFFED ZUCCHINI IN TOMATO SAUCE
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce
2 pounds ripe Roma tomatoes, grated (see Note), or 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for coating a baking dish
1 large clove garlic, flattened
Fine sea salt to taste

For the summer squash
12 medium summer squash ~ use a mix of long and round shapes and of green and yellow
8 ounces ground beef
1 packed cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons half-and-half
1 teaspoon fine sea salt (or to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
1. Combine the grated tomatoes (or diced canned tomatoes), olive oil and garlic in a bowl and season lightly with salt. Set aside.

2. Cut the ends off the zucchini and other long squash. Cut the tops off the round squash and, if necessary, a sliver off the bottoms so that they stand upright without rolling over.

3. Use a zucchini corer or an all-purpose corer to gently hollow out a tunnel through the long squash. Use a melon baller, corer or a small spoon to gently dig out the insides of the round squash, taking care not to cut all the way through to the bottom. Set the squash aside.

4. Put the ground beef, bread crumbs, Parmigiano cheese, garlic, parsley, egg and half-and-half in a bowl. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper. Use your hands to combine everything thoroughly. With your fingers or a small spoon, fill the squash cavities with the stuffing, taking care not to pack them too tightly (the filling will expand as the squash bakes). Use any leftover stuffing to make meatballs or a small meatloaf. Set the stuffed squash aside on a plate.

5. Heat the oven to 375° F.

6. Lightly coat the inside of a large baking dish (or two smaller ones). Spoon a layer of tomatoes on the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange the squash in the dish so that they fit snugly together. Spoon the remaining tomatoes on top of the vegetables and drizzle a little olive oil over them. Cover with foil and bake for about 1 1/2 hours, until the squash is very tender and can be easily pierced with a fork. Let the squash cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. Serve warm or tepid.

NOTES
To grate Roma tomatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Set a box grater on a cutting board with a moat. Hold the cut side of a tomato flat against the large holes of the grater and grate the tomato, pressing gently, until only the skin is left in your palm. As you work, transfer the pulp and any juice that collects in a bowl.

Before baking, sprinkle the squash with a little grated Parmigiano cheese. Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes or so of baking to allow the cheese to brown a bit.

I served the stuffed squash over cooked rice. I highly recommend it.