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Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage

If you grow zucchini in your garden, and you're the kind of wonderful person who brings your neighbors a share of your bounty, and such bounty includes foot-long several pound zucchinis, might I suggest that you include a recipe to accompany such a welcome gift? I'm not kidding! Seriously, we have such a wonderful neighbor, Pat, who not only brings over freshly picked, glorious produce, but tried and true recipes as well. The following stuffed zucchini recipe is adapted from one that Pat brought us last week, along with a 2-pound zucchini, and we loved it. It tastes like it is stuffed with Italian pork sausage, but the stuffing is actually lean ground turkey with garlic, herbs, and mushrooms. Enjoy.

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Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey Sausage Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 zucchini about 12 inches long, or 6 medium ones
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
  • 2 tablespoons dry white wine
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 2 diced tomatoes
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons pepper

Method

1 Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving shells about 1/4 inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.

2 Heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft. Add mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides, and sauté another 2 minutes.

3 In a separate skillet heat a Tbsp of olive oil on medium high heat. Add the ground turkey. Lightly brown the turkey, stirring only occasionally. After the turkey browns on one side, stir it so that it has a chance to brown on other sides. Cook until the ground turkey is lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Stir in the onion and mushroom mixture from the other pan. Add the wine. Stir in tomato, basil and rosemary and cook 1 minute longer. Drain any excess fat. Remove mixture from heat and set it aside.

4 When mixture has cooled, add cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Fill zucchini shells with mixture. Fill a baking pan with 1/4 inch of water. Place filled zucchini halves in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove zucchini from pan and serve while hot.

Serves 4.

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19 Comments

Zucchinis stuffed with Italian sausage or in this case ground turkey and herbs sound absolutely delicious! I know what I'm making for dinner tomorrow!

Posted by: Amy on August 24, 2007 10:07 PM

What a wonderful neighbor, who brings you zucchini and recipes! I often trade herbs from my herb garden for tomatoes, asparagus, etc. from my friends' gardens. Now I think I'll type up some recipes to trade, also.

Posted by: lydia on August 25, 2007 3:37 AM

Am I reading the recipe correctly? When you bake the filled zucchini, do you place them directly in the 1/4 inch of water in the baking pan? I'm worried they'll become mushy during baking.

Other than this concern, this recipe sounds wonderfully flavorful!

Posted by: Krooie on August 25, 2007 5:03 AM

Oh Wow! I've been looking for a recipe like this for a while now! I'll definitely be making this in the very near future. right after I take my own spin on your Turkey burgers!

Have I mentioned that you're becoming my idol really quickly ;)

Posted by: Jerry on August 25, 2007 7:11 AM

Hi Kroole - Yes, you are reading the recipe correctly. The water boils away, helps keep the zucchini from drying out in the oven. You can see slightly different way to make it in the stuffed zucchini with ham and mushrooms recipe.

Posted by: Elise on August 25, 2007 8:13 AM

This looks like a great meal. I was thinking that perhaps inlieu of water in the bottom of the pan, one might try a thin layer of spaghetti sauce(either homemade or jarred). It would still keep it moist and add another dimension to this receipe.

Posted by: Sunny on August 25, 2007 8:48 AM

Hi Sunny, I suspect that a thin layer of spaghetti sauce baked at 375°F for 40 minutes would dry out to a crisp and then start to burn. Water really is your best bet here.

Posted by: Elise on August 25, 2007 9:09 AM

This recipe sounds yummy!I agree the water would be needed to keep the zucchini from drying. The spaghetti sauce would add another dimension to the recipe. I'll just have to try it both ways. :o)

Posted by: Clover on August 25, 2007 10:35 AM

This looks great! I will give this a definite shot! I have to let you know this, could you check out my stuffed zucchini recipe too? You might like it too... :) Since you're in the stuffed zucchini mood. lol

my stuffed zucchini :)

Posted by: matt on August 25, 2007 11:42 AM

The spaghetti sauce in the bottom would be a great addition, but to keep it from drying out or burning you will need to cover the dish with foil or place them in covered baking dish to keep the moisture in. This would be done the same way you would do stuffed peppers.

Posted by: Patricia on August 25, 2007 8:34 PM

This recipe is going in my Favorites folder. It's terrific. The flavor combinations are perfect and the little boats come out so tender and juicy. I added some good dry bread crumbs with dots of butter just before putting in the over. The filling ingredients augment those tasty end-of-summer zuccs perfectly. Thanks Elise for passing it on.

Posted by: Paula on August 27, 2007 3:35 AM

ahhhh if only I could make these without turning the oven on!

Posted by: Janet on August 27, 2007 8:08 AM

I tried this recipe last night, but I forgot about the water. It still turned out fine. Also I didn't have some of the ingredients so I substituted with what I had on hand (parsley, Mrs. Dash, garlic powder instead of garlic cloves, canola oil instead of olive oil, etc.). But it turned out great. It ended up filling two large and two small zucchinis, so I'll have some great leftovers for the next few days.

Posted by: Daryl Stephens on August 27, 2007 8:25 AM

Hi Elise - I made this last night and it was fantastic! My husband and 2 year old both liked it so well they had seconds!

I did substitute for the white wine, since I didn't have any on hand and used dried rosemary, but the dish was great.

I have only recently found your site, but I am cooking almost daily from it. Thank you so much for sharing!!

Posted by: Lauren on August 27, 2007 3:38 PM

Hi Elise, What a great idea to fill Zucchini with the ground meat stuffing and bake it. I will definitely try out this kind very soon. Keep going :-)

Posted by: Mona on August 28, 2007 6:36 AM

ooh...looks simply delicious!

Posted by: The Cooking Ninja on August 28, 2007 7:42 AM

This is awesome! I have a couple large zucchini remaining from making muffins this weekend, and some leftover ground turkey in the freezer waiting for inspiration. This is totally going to be dinner soon!

Posted by: Charise on August 29, 2007 7:12 AM

If you wanted to add some spaghetti sauce, you could put some in the bottom of the zuchinni boat before you put the meat mixture in.

Posted by: Anita on August 29, 2007 12:39 PM

Zucchini is one of my new favorite veggies and I've been trying lots of recipes with it to concinve my family of its greatness, too. We all liked this--even my picky brother! The only thing I did different was use dried herbs and a can of no-salt added diced tomatoes that I drained. Thanks for a great tasting recipe!

Posted by: Rebecca on August 29, 2007 4:11 PM

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