We made a complete meal of this zucchini dish. A delicious meal. If you are a stuffed pepper fan, I suggest you try stuffing zucchini instead.

The ingredients are many, but the prep is not time consuming, nor is it technically difficult.

Cleaning the zucchini, trimming & cutting each one into two shorter pieces, and then hollowing them all out will take the most time. You will want to be careful to avoid cutting through the skin. Marcella recommended using a narrow, sharp tool. I chose a small boning knife. It worked great.

After wilting the onions in the oil, the parsley and diluted tomato paste are added. While that is cooking, warmed milk is used to soften the bread. After the milk mush cools, it is combined with all of the additional ingredients. The resulting meat mixture is stuffed firmly into the hollowed-out zucchini.

The stuffed zucchini are put into the pan with the onions and tomato and covered to cook until tender – somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 minutes. Turn them a few times in the pan for even cooking. Once they are tender, uncover, and if there is any juice left boil it off.
Marcella says: “Here is one of those dishes that has nothing to gain from being served the moment it’s done. Its flavor improves when it is served several hours or even a day later. Reheat it gently in a covered pan, and serve warm, but not steaming hot.”
We didn’t wait a day, or even a few hours.