Zucchini Ripieni (Filled Courgettes)
Serves: 4
Gennaro says, "These courgettes combined with ricotta and fresh mint are deliciously light and flavoursome. Serve with a sweet baby tomato, red onion and celery salad for a lovely lunch or dinner at any time. Or you could serve both aubergines and courgettes together especially at larger gatherings. Bertolli with Butter is great for sautéing the vegetables and to make the topping shine as it bakes in the oven."
Ingredients:
4 medium-sized courgettes50g Bertolli with Butter, plus extra for greasing and doting
1 medium-sized red onion, finely chopped
10 green pitted olives, roughly chopped
2 free-range eggs
80g ricotta
60g grated vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese
40g breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
handful of mint leaves, finely chopped
For the topping:
20 mint leaves, finely chopped
20g breadcrumbs
10g grated vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese
1 x ovenproof dish, lightly greased with Bertolli with Butter
method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Slice the courgettes length ways in half. With a small sharp knife, make an incision all around the edge and scoop out the flesh, so you are left with 8 empty courgette shells.
- Roughly chop the courgette flesh.
- Heat Bertolli with Butter in a large frying pan, add onion and sweat on a medium heat until softened. Add courgette pulp and olives and cook for a further minute or so until the pulp has softened, season with a little salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
- In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs, mix in grated vegetarian Parmesan-style cheese and ricotta. Add mint, breadcrumbs and cooled courgette mixture and mix until all well incorporated.
- Fill courgette shells with the mixture. Tip: to make this easy, fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe the filling into the courgette shells. Place the filled courgettes in a greased ovenproof dish. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the top of the filled courgettes followed by tiny knobs of Bertolli with Butter. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, removing the foil 5 minutes before the end of cooking time.
- Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.
