Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Italian style stuffed zucchini boats with pork mince and marinara sauce topped with a lot of cheese – a hearty low carb dinner for two.

Hello all! Here I am again with a great new zucchini recipe: baked zucchini boats stuffed with pork mince marinara sauce. These flavorful lasagna style stuffed zucchini boats make a delicious and healthy dinner, the boats are ready in almost an hour.

These zucchini boats are stuffed with tomato sauce ground pork mixture, seasoned with Italian seasons, topped with a lot of cheese. If you're not a pork fan, feel free to use any other ground meat, like turkey, chicken or beef, these boats will be amazing with any type of mince. For a better taste, add peeled cherry or plum tomato to the filling and to not waste the center of the zucchini boats, add the scooped zucchini to sauce.

While the pork tomato sauce is cooking prepare the boats: cut the zucchini lengthwise, using a small spoon scoop the flesh out of the zucchini. Don't throw away the zucchini flesh, chop it into small pieces and mix it to the sauce. When the filling is ready, stuff the boats and sprinkle them with grated cheese (Parmesan, cheddar or any other hard cheese). Bake the stuffed zucchini boats covered with foil, then remove the cover, add more cheese and bake until the cheese is melted. I baked the boats for 30 minutes, we usually like them super soft, as you can see on pictures, but this part can be shortened, depending how softened do you like your pork mince and zucchini.

This lasagna style dish is pretty easy to prepare, it's gluten free and low carb, also high in fat, one serving contains approximately 700 calories.

Difficulty: easy

Diet: low-carb, gluten-free, clean eating

Cuisine: Italian
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 5 mins
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini
• 300 g | 10 oz ground pork
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup tomato sauce from can (organic)
• 2-3 peeled cherry or plum tomato (fresh or from can)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp freshly chopped basil
• 1/4 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Chop the onion and simmer it in the hot oil on medium heat, stirring continuously. After 2 minutes, add the chopped garlic.
2. Stir in the ground pork and cook it until it turns white, then season with salt, pepper and paprika.
3. Add the peeled cherry or plum tomatoes and the tomato sauce, mix it well with the meat, add the thyme, rosemary and basil and cook it covered on medium heat for 25 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 180 °C| 355°F. Grease a baking dish with olive oil or cooking spray.
5. Cut the edges of the zucchini, then half them lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and center of zucchini using a small spoon. Season the boats with salt and pepper.
6. Chop the zucchini flesh and add to the mince to cook (this step is optionally - if your zucchini is old and the seeds are too firm, throw them out).
7. When the pork is cooked, stuff the zucchini boats evenly with the pork tomato sauce mixture, place them into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top of the boats with the half of the cheese. Cover the pan and toss it into the oven.
8. Bake the stuffed boats for 20 minutes until the zucchini and the pork mince is thoroughly cooked.
9. Remove the cover, add the rest of the Parmesan and bake the zucchini boats for 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Nutritional disclaimer

Please note, that I'm not a nutritional professional. I provide nutritional information for my recipes based on calculation made on YUMMLY (you can sign up for free, use the Yum button to save my recipes and see the nutritional information). I advice you to calculate independently the accurate nutritional information on your own, based on type of ingredients you are using and by weighting out your on food. Thank you for understanding!

Enjoy!