Although it goes great with spaghetti, lasagna, or another Italian food, my family enjoys it with just about anything. It tastes great if you prepare it the day before, split it in half, butter it, and then reheat it for dinner. Although I use a bread maker, it can also be baked by hand. My preferred method is to utilize the dough cycle and bake it in a French loaf pan.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 45 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 stuffed zucchini halves |
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini, ends trimmed
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 links Italian-style chicken sausage, casings removed
- 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes (Optional)
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ medium sweet onion (such as Vidalia®), chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained and chopped
- ½ cup dry bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Cut a 3/4-inch-thick slice lengthwise down the center of each zucchini to make four “boats.” Use a spoon to scoop out flesh from each zucchini boat, leaving a 3/8 inch shell intact all around. Dice two zucchini slices and set aside.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until crumbly and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Stir in pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Add diced zucchini, onion, and garlic; cook and stir until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Transfer sausage mixture to a bowl; stir in tomatoes, bread crumbs, Parmesan, and basil until thoroughly combined. Spoon mixture into zucchini boats, packing gently. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven until thoroughly heated through and beginning to brown on top, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 260 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 20 g |
| Cholesterol | 37 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 548 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Fantastic recipe, followed it according to instruction(s) substituting the sausage for uncooked chicken breast !
It was so good!
Big hit. The entire family loved them.
Turned out good but my zucchini was still kind of firm. I think I could have done a better job scooping the insides out. In any case it was still good. I used Italian sausage and rosemary. Had a few breaded shrimp to go with the rice.
This was a great way to use large zucchini from my garden. My neighborhood grocery store sells chicken shawarma sausage so used that plus extra shawarma spices and skipped basil and chilies. Like everyone else too much filling so cooked in small casserole dish. Really enjoyed it.
Another great recipe! Easy to modify to your own tastes: I didn’t use red pepper flakes, used only 2 cloves of garlic and carved out 5 zucchini. Only used 3 of the 5 cut off zucchini slices for the stuffing. Brushed the outside of the boats with olive oil and added a little bacon to the stuffing. Served with fresh green beans, this was a hit in my family!
This is a perfect way to use up those garden zucchinis! I did not have chicken sausage so I used Chorizo sausage instead. Because of that I did not use as much red pepper flakes. I loved the flavor of this and will make this again for sure!
I like the concept. I feel that the zucchini needs to be seasoned also, not just stuffed. I will also use more tomatoes next time for added moisture and flavor.
This tasted great! I cut the zucchini in half, scooped out the flesh, chopped up about half of the flesh and added that to the filling.
Delish! Recommend covering and baking for 30 minutes and then remove foil and bake additional 10 minutes so zucchini softens. I also added the scraped insides of the zucchini to the mix. Used fire roasted diced tomatoes and did not drain. Makes a lot of stuffing!
Great Recipe! Love to find light recipes that I want to eat!
Wonderful and spicy! I grow my own hot peppers and dry/grind them. They are super hot so I only used 1/2 the amount and it was still spicy. Substitutions:feta and spinach chicken sausage,fire roasted tomatoes,and added a bit more Parmesan.It made a lot of stuffing so I used green and yellow bell peppers. Yum! Definitely a keeper.
Great recipe! While cooking the sausage, I had the zucchini in the oven cooking. I sautéed 1/4 onion. Added 3 links of Board Head Robust chicken sausage (precooked), casings removed and crumbled. Heat up. Add 1 can of diced tomato, basil and 1/4 c breadcrumbs. I omitted garlic because the precooked sausage is already seasoned. Added 1/4 c Parmesan and mixed. Stuffed zucchini and back in the oven for 15 min. Removed zucchini, added mozzarella cheese on top and cooked another 15 min. My family loved it!
Too much stuffing for the amount of zucchini in the recipe. Tried to make little balls with the remainder per some other reviews but they flattened out and stuck to the baking sheet. Way too much red pepper flakes too. Cut it in half and that was spicy enough. Confusing directions too. Enjoyed the healthy meal but probably won’t make again.
My Wife and I had to try this as we had a Giant size Zucchini to fix. We may have used too much Sausage but This is One Awesome Recipe, and We WILL BE doing it more. Thanks for this Recipe
This is one of the few recipes from this site I actually tweak considerably. But boy, is it a gem! Impressive enough for company (everyone I’ve served it to asks for the recipe), yet still devoured by my 1, 2.5 and 4 year old. My major change is substituting ground chicken for the sausage. I brown a pound of chicken, pour off any liquid, add a cup of water and a few teaspoons of dry Italian dressing mix (you can make or buy the packet). I then simmer until the liquids cooked off. In terms of quantities, I use 3 zucchini and double everything else. You will have extra “stuffing,” but I toss this with about half a pound of whatever pasta I have on hand and just bake that along with the zucchini boats. I top both the zucchini and the pasta with additional bread crumbs and pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, whatever I have on hand. This is a winner. I do make my own bread crumbs because our family avoids added sugars. While not necessary, this obviously improved e recipe. I just cube our day old sourdough, toss it with olive oil and Italian Ali was and toast it in the oven, then run it through the food processor. Serve these with a fresh baguette and company is wowed! Feed your kids the pasta. 😉
Very good but still miss my beef.
Delicious. The stuffing yield is too much for the zucchini’s but I stuffed long hots and sweet peppers with the leftovers and everything went!!
Cook the onions a bit first off then add the chicken sausage and chopped garlic. You do not have to cook the sausage all the way through as you are going to bake it in the oven for 30 minutes! Cook the zucchini in a cookie sheet in the bit of tomato water drained from the tomatoes. Add some shredded mozzarella cheese on top prior to baking. I was not impressed. Even though I had cooked the zucchini boats before stuffing the squash was still not really cooked through!!!
This was sooooo delicious! I made a couple changes. I couldn’t find chicken sausage at my store, so I used Italian turkey sausage. Also, instead of making zucchini boats, I just cut the zucchini up and put it all in little Dutch ovens. This was a smash hit in my house. Super impressed. Thanks!
So good.