Bull’s eye!
July 25, 2012
A couple of Saturday’s ago, I walked by a vendor at the Farmer’s Market and I spotted these beauties:
Round zucchinis! The lady called them “Bull’s Eye” zucchini but I have also seen them refered to as orb zucchini.
When I was little my mom grew these, but her’s were always green. Last year, my friend grew them a gave me a couple. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to eat the second one in time, but it made a great Jack ‘O Lantern.
I saved the seeds but we didn’t plant them this year. I did give some to a co worker who I hope has good luck growing them.
My mom used to hollow these zuchinni out and stuff them with ground beef, tomatoes, peppers, and onions. I did something similar with mine:
I sliced off the top of the zucchini and scraped out the inside, seeds and all. I chopped up the inside flesh of the zucchini and set it aside. Next, I sauteed some red onions and garlic from my garden in a little olive oil, adding a pinch of salt and some fresh ground pepper. When the onions and garlic were translucent, I mixed in some pasta sauce. Now, I normally don’t buy pasta sauce for two reasons: 1) Most red sauces upset my tummy. 2) I like to make my sauce from scratch when I actually use it. However, last time I was at at the grocery store, I spotted this Newman’s Own pasta sauce and I am in love! Anyway, I mixed about a cup of the sauce into the frying pan full of zucchini, onions, and garlic. I added a couple of chopped sprigs of basil from my garden as well. I only cooked this for a bit, just enough to mix everything together and let the flavors meld.
I stuffed the hollowed out zucchinis with the mixture and baked them in the oven on a baking sheet at 300 degrees, for about 20 minutes, or until the zucchinis were fork tender.
I topped the zucchini with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese and served it with a salad with greens from my garden and Vidalia onion dressing, a couple of slices of butter Vienna loaf, and a white wine spritzer. What a perfect summer meal!
For the record, zucchinis are my favorite vegetable. During the course of writing this blog, I have spelled zucchini in a different wrong way every time I have typed it. I also have terrible luck growing zucchini and have not been able to grow it in the last two years of gardens. Peppers however, I do an excellent job with!
Have a great day everyone and keep cooking!
