Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats are a delicious and healthy twist on classic flavors, featuring tender zucchinis hollowed and filled with a savory mixture of herbs, cheese, tomatoes, and ground meat, all baked to perfection.
Keep reading past the recipe card for tips and serving suggestions!
Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Equipment
- 9×12 baking dish
- small bowl
- small pot
Ingredients
- 1 c orzo
- 6 zucchini
- 1 lb ground beef
- 2 c bread crumbs
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 can diced tomato
- 1/3 c grated Parmesan
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 c mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
Prepare Orzo
- In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Cook orzo pasta until tender. Drain and set aside
Prepare Zucchini
- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the pulp and place in a bowl. Be sure to leave about 3/8" of the shell
- Par boil the zucchini shells in salted water for 2 minutes. Remove and drain on a cooling rack
Stuffing
- In a skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain off excess fat drippings
- In a bowl, mix together ground beef, zucchini pulp, egg, bread crumbs, diced tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and salt
Bake
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Spoon orzo pasta on the bottom of a 9×12 baking dish
- Arrange open zucchini shells on top of the orzo pasta
- Using a spoon, fill each shell with the stuffing
- Optional: sprinkle tops with shredded mozzarella cheese
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
Recipe Inspiration
My most favorite food on the planet is stuffed peppers. Ohhhh my how I love them! Problem is, not everyone in my house loves them the way I do, so I rarely make them.
However, they do love the inside stuffing…so, that’s where today’s recipe got it’s inspiration! Rather than stuffing a green pepper, I decided to fall back on a recipe that I made one time in college to impress my boyfriend (now husband)! This was back in the day when recipe cards were sent via mail as advertisements. I used to love getting these in the mail because I was definitely in the stage of playing Susie Homemaker! Fun fact: I still have that recipe card to this day!
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Make These Zucchini Boats Vegetarian!
If you would like to make these zucchini boats a vegetarian-friendly recipe, simply omit the ground beef. You could swap in either chopped baby Bella mushrooms or orzo noodles!
Let’s Make Them Together!
- In a small pot, bring water to a boil. Cook orzo pasta until tender. Spoon orzo pasta on the bottom of a 9×12 baking dish
- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the pulp and place in a bowl. Be sure to leave about 3/8″ of the shell
- Par boil the zucchini shells in salted water for 2 minutes. Remove and drain on a cooling rack
- In a skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain off excess fat drippings
- In a bowl, mix together ground beef, zucchini pulp, egg, bread crumbs, diced tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and salt
- Using a spoon, fill each shell with the stuffing
- Optional: sprinkle tops with shredded mozzarella cheese
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
Serve With
I would highly suggest serving these deliciously stuffed zucchini boats with this Salad Mix-Up and for dessert these Chocolate Drizzled Fruit Kabobs!
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