Garlic and Herb-Stuffed Zucchini
Serves 2

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling (optional)
1 onion, minced
4 cloves garlic
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup white wine
3 tablespoons capers (or 12 pitted Nicoise olives)
Salt
1/2 pound baguette
1/4 cup loosely packed, coarsely chopped basil leaves (or parsley)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 salted anchovy fillets, rinsed, bones removed and chopped (or 10 pitted Nicoise olives)
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts (or toasted almonds)
3 – 6 (8-inch) zucchini

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the olive oil and the onion in a large skillet over medium heat until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic; cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, wine, capers or olives and one-half teaspoon salt. Simmer until the sauce thickens, about 20 minutes.

2. Trim the crusts and cut the bread into cubes. Place in a food processor or a blender with the basil or parsley and garlic and grind to fine crumbs. Pour into a bowl and stir in the anchovies and pine nuts, or olives and almonds. Set aside.

3. Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise and use a melonballer to carefully remove some of the flesh from the center to make a “canoe.” Leave about one-fourth inch at the sides and ends and a little more at the bottom.

5. Pour the tomato sauce into a lightly oiled 5-quart gratin dish or substitute two smaller gratin dishes. Spoon the breadcrumb mixture into the zucchini, mounding slightly on top. If you don’t like pasty breadcrumbs, do not press the breadcrumbs down too much. Arrange the zucchini in the gratin dish. Drizzle with olive oil if desired.

6. Bake until the vegetables have softened and the tops of the breadcrumbs have browned, about 30 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Elvi-Tell your friend to send in their recipe! We’re getting desperate here!

Lindsey- Thanks for changing the subject! I have no idea what tapioca flour is! Send your crisp recipe…Mine just needed more pizzaz. Maybe i’ll have an entire post on fruit crisps, as I have some Ontario peaches and blackberries ready for their closeup.

I make crisp once a week at work and just made it at home. Are you looking for a good crisp topping or a good basic recipe? Was yours too watery, too starchy? I find that they require more starch than the recipe often suggests and my recent effort (4-5 cups fruit, 1/4 cup sugar, 5T tapioca flour) gave me a really nice interior. It’s a challenge when you are working with berries, too…they’re just so juicy.

And, finally, I read your blog post about the broadcast of the interview at the literary festival about the books, in my very own newsreader here at my desk. I love it. And I so enjoy your blog. And I know someone who makes a really good stuffed zucchini, but I have never succeeded in doing so, so I decided it’s something you have to eat when other people make it, and be content.

i’m longing to find a great stuffed zucchini recipe – but i haven’t got one to send, and people often look very suspicious when i propose making it! i have a very vivid sense memory of the first time i smelled and tasted zucchini bread (made like a carrot or banana cake/bread) though. i was living in mainfloor flat in a big old house in downtown huntsville, Ontario, of all places – and this woman (that people in town called too intense) who lived on the second floor above me baked it. all day long the house smelled like sugar and cinnamon and some other lovely delicate scent that i couldn’t place -