Zucchine Ripiene - filled zucchini

In Zita’s times you made this dish usually when you had some leftover meat. Any kind of cooked meat could be used, from beef, pork, chicken, rabbit etc. Remember Zitas `policy in her kitchen was never to waist food. She usually made this dish on Mondays because she always had boiled meat leftover from Sundays. She always chose the bigger zucchini from her garden, the kind that you had overlooked when you picked the ones you needed for other dishes, other women would probably just throw them away or feed them to the pigs or the chickens but Zitas` policy was never to waist anything especially food. She had learned that very soon in her life.
She came from a family of 14 children so you can imagine what it meant to feed such a family in the days Zita grew up in her small village.

Well anyway, once you have the right size zucchini big enough to dig out the insides without breaking the outside you start thinking about the filling.
You will need 2 zucchini for each serving.
You start by taking out the inside of the zucchini taking care to leave enough skin to contain the filling.
For each filling you need about ½ cup of ground leftover meat that you put aside.
One spoonful of bread that you have previously soaked in broth for about 20 minutes.
Now that you have decided the number of zucchini that you want to fill you need, lets say for

  • 8 zucchini,
  • 4 eggs,
  • ½ cup of chopped onions
  • 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese,
  • a few pinches of thyme leaves,
  • a sprinkle of nutmeg,
  • 1 spoon of chopped garlic and one of parsley,
  • some bread crumbs
  • salt and pepper.

Mix all ingredients well, fill the zucchini, and dip the ends in the bread crumbs. Place the zucchini in a pan with olive oil, 1 or 2 cups of broth and bake for 40 minutes at a medium high temperature.

You can serve them with a fresh tomato salad.