Let me share a little secret with you. I’ve never really liked stuffed zucchini. I think it’s because every time I’ve eaten it, it’s been baked in the oven and the zucchini has that mushy, slimy texture and it’s filled with spaghetti sauce. But I like the idea of stuffed zucchini- so I thought I’d come up with one that was more my style. To the grill it is! You can do this on an indoor grill pan as well. You’ll want zucchini that aren’t huge, but just a little bit bigger than normal. About 10 inches or so. If you have really big ones, just add more diced zucchini flesh to the recipe to increase the filling, or double the filling all together. You can also substitute more zucchini flesh in place of the sausage for a vegetarian version.
Grilled Stuffed Zucchini
recipe by Our Best Bites
2 medium zucchini (about 10″)
4 oz Italian turkey sausage (that’s 1 link of the kind pictured here)
1/4 C diced red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato (about 1/2 C diced)
1 1/2 T chopped fresh basil (or abt a teaspoon of dried)
2/3 C Italian cheese blend (the kind pre-bagged with parm/mozz/asiago/etc)
1 T Italian style bread crumbs
kosher salt
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
Slice zucchini in half length wise, leaving the tops on.
Scoop out the centers, saving them in a bowl. Leave at least 1/4 inch around the edges and bottoms. Take the good parts of the zucchini guts you just scooped out and dice up 1/2 C. This will go in your filling.
Drizzle the zucchini shells with a little olive oil and use your hands to rub it on all sides. Sprinkle with some kosher salt and black pepper and set aside.
Preheat your grill outside and then start your filling in a skillet on the stovetop. Start by browning the sausage. When you no longer see pink, add the onions, garlic, and diced zucchini. Cook for 2-3 minutes until onion is tender. Add tomato and basil, 1/4 t kosher salt and a few cracks of black pepper. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
You’re gonna add that cheese in just a second! First take your zucchini to the grill and put them hollow-side down.
Grill for about 5 minutes on medium heat. They should have nice charred marks and look tender on the inside.
Take them back inside. Add cheese and bread crumbs to filling mixture. Stir to combine and then divide the filling between the zucchini. Top each zucchini with about 1T cheese and sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 t bread crumbs. Lastly, give them a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Place them back on the grill (filling side up- please!) Close grill lid, and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Larger/thicker zucchini will obviously take longer to cook.
If you’re doing this inside, it will take a little longer seeing as you can’t close the lid to keep in the heat. You also might want to broil them in the oven when they’re finished to help the cheese on top get nice and bubbly.
That’s it folks. Quick and easy!
You can serve them as a main dish and pair it with a green salad and some crusty bread. Or cut them into thirds for a side dish or appetizer. Either way, you’ll be lovin’ the zucchini!
More from the Garden:
Bacon-Wrapped Green Bean Bundles
Garden Fresh Salsa
Grilled Stuffed Zucchini
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini about 10"
- 4 ounces Italian turkey sausage
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium tomato about 1/2 cup diced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or about a teaspoon of dried
- 2/3 cup Italian cheese blend the kind pre-bagged with Parmesan/mozzarella/asiago/etc.
- 1 tablespoon Italian style bread crumbs
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Slice zucchini in half length wise, leaving the tops on.
- Scoop out the centers, saving them in a bowl. Leave at least 1/4 inch around the edges and bottoms. Take the good parts of the zucchini guts you just scooped out and dice up 1/2 cup. This will go in your filling.
- Drizzle the zucchini shells with a little olive oil and use your hands to rub it on all sides. Sprinkle with some kosher salt and black pepper and set aside.
- Preheat your grill outside and then start your filling in a skillet on the stovetop. Start by browning the sausage. When you no longer see pink, add the onions, garlic, and diced zucchini. Cook for 2-3 minutes until onion is tender. Add tomato and basil, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and a few cracks of black pepper. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
- You're gonna add that cheese in just a second! First take your zucchini to the grill and put them hollow-side down. Grill for about 5 minutes on medium heat. They should have nice charred marks and look tender on the inside.
- Take zucchini back inside. Add cheese and bread crumbs to filling mixture. Stir to combine and then divide the filling between the zucchini. Top each zucchini with about 1 tablespoon cheese and sprinkle with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon bread crumbs. Lastly, give them a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- Place them back on the grill (filling side up- please!) Close grill lid, and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Larger/thicker zucchini will obviously take longer to cook.
- If you're doing this inside, it will take a little longer seeing as you can't close the lid to keep in the heat. You also might want to broil them in the oven when they're finished to help the cheese on top get nice and bubbly.
Questions & Reviews
Nevermind – I just saw on another recipe (Baked Zucchini Fries) that you can add some seasonings to plain bread crumbs to get Italian-style. Thanks!
This sounds delicious and I have a bunch of zucchini coming up in my garden already! Is there a way to make plain bread crumbs into Italian-style bread crumbs? Can I just add some Italian Seasoning or something? Thanks for the recipe, I can’t wait to try it!
SOOO YUMMY! We used a more meat than it called for but we had much larger zucchinis also. Next time I want to try and add a bit more veggies like mushrooms maybe cauliflower. We had zucchinis that had been laying around for weeks because I was so done with squash season and this recipe was a great way to use them up!
This=amazing. Period.
Making this for the second time and got too confident… I out 1 1/2 T of the dried Basil, not 1 teaspoon like the recipe states. Looks like we’re going spicy tonight!
This was absolutely fantastic. I had gigantic zucchinis and it worked well. They just needed a little more time. I plan to make this a lot.
I have made stuffed zucchini before and have always been dissapointed. It never turns out the way I imagine. But my garden is being plentiful right now and I needed to do something with it. I ran across this recipe and decided to try stuffed zucchini once more. And I’m so glad I did. This recipe is awesome! I think grilling made all the difference. Thanks so much!!
I made this the other night & they were so good! My 15 yr old ate 2 halves! The younger kids didn’t even want to try them, so they had something else. I figured ‘hey, more for us’! Yummy recipe. Thanks!
Replace the sausage with some lentils cooked in veggie stock and a bay leaf, then just saute some onion and garlic to put into the mixture. You can really create any flavor you want using different herbs, cheeses and stuff: herbs de province, curry, southwest, etc. Awesome!
Delicious! Even my picky 6 year old ate them and he claims to hate zucchini.
We made these a couple nights ago! They were sooo good! I used an italian pork sausage and it was so flavorful! Will definitely make these a regular during the summertime when we have plenty of zucchini!
This was our main dish tonight….. VERY satisfied people at the dinner table 🙂 thanks for the recipe!!!
These were so delicious! It was like eating pizza without the heavy bread. I noticed someone commented that she was waiting for larger zucchini… I just used 4 5-6 inch zucchini, and they turned out great!
These are DIVINE! I absolutely loved them.
Delicious! I discovered my grill had no propane, so I had to use my little countertop electric grill. To solve the “no lid” problem, I took the bottom of a broiling pan and put it on top. Worked perfectly. I was also naughty and used pork Italian sausage instead of turkey – can’t say I have regrets. 🙂
Made this tonight & we LOVED it! My husband asked what it was called & I told him, he said we should call it Zucchini Gondola!
This sounds lovely! Just uncovered 2 huge zucchini hiding in my garden; perfect for tonight’s dinner. Thanks.
This was SO TASTY! We got a HUGE (like over a foot and a half huge) zucchini from family this weekend & we turned half of it into a stuffed zucchini and the other half grilled on foil with onion – super filling and way more than the 2 of us could eat. THANKS & YUM
Oh man, I have been drooling over these since I got the cookbook for mother’s day. But everytime I go to the grocery store, all they have are these little baby zucchini the size of a pickle. And I have tried several different stores, but no good size ones yet, so anxious to make em, they look amazing!!!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to make it for my Mom’s Bday! But where did your “printer friendly” button go??
Oh My!!!! I made this as a main dish and my family loved them, this will be a yummy addition to our dinner selection!!!
This is the BEST stuffed zucchini ever! My husband even loved it which is saying something.
However I did use regular breakfast sausage instead of italian because we really don't care for italian sasuage. I put some thyme and sage in my sasuage while it was browning too.
This was the best stuffed zuchini I ever had, I tweaked recipe based on what I had which was Lebanese zucchini (we planted the wrong kind and I haven't known what to do with it, they are basically much fatter) so I doubled the filling to fill them, also since Lebanese zucchini are meant for stuffing there is no usable zuke to add to mixture so I upped onions & tomatoes, also had apple & onion sausage (not turkey) and instead of basil I used ground all spice (~ 1 tsp) since that is traditional to Lebanese zucchini. Steps were perfect, time was perfect and it came out amazing. Will make this again soon.
I love recipes that are good and sooo easy, and this was delicious! Thanks!