This would make a great Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year) side dish.
This recipe is by some guy called Otto Lenghi. Apparently he’s published a couple of cook books and his reputation is pretty good.
Friends have gifted me some of his books in the past, and I recently had a glance through them and tried out one of his recipes.
This one doesn’t have many ingredients, is easy to make, very flavoursome and makes a great side dish.
Prediction: I see a great future for Otto if he keeps coming up with recipes like this one!
Ingredients
2 large zucchinis (500g) halved lengthways
1 clove garlic crushed
1 large egg beaten
40g parmesan (finely grated)
40g fresh sour dough bread crumbs (I used a mixture of almond meal and cornflakes crumbs)
100g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 large lemon (finely grate the zest to get 2 tsp then juice to get 1 tbs)
4 tablespoons finely chopped oregano leaves (plus a few extra leaves to serve)
35g pine nuts, lightly toasted
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 230C (fan)
Use a dessertspoon to hollow out the flesh of the zucchinis and make them into the shape of canoes: don’t scrape them out completely, you want sides to be about 1cm thick and the zucchinis should hold their shape.
Transfer the flesh to a sieve, and squeeze flesh, squeeze and discard as much liquid as you can: you should be left with about 100g of drained zucchini flesh.
Put this into a medium bowl and stir in the garlic, egg, parmesan, bread crumbs and a ¼ teaspoon of salt.
Use your hands to crush the tomatoes well, then add these to the bowl of zucchini mixture.
Stir to combine and set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the lemon zest, oregano and pine nuts. Stir half of this into the zucchini mixture and set the rest aside for the salsa.
Place the hollowed zucchini on a medium baking tray or ovenproof dish. Hollowed side facing up. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil (in total) over the zucchinis and season with 1/8 teaspoon of salt (in total). Spoon the zucchini mixture back into the hollows and bake for 15 minutes, until the filling is set and golden-brown.
While the zucchinis are baking, make the salsa. Add the lemon juice, remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and 1/8 teaspoon of salt to the bowl of oregano and pine nuts.
Let the zucchinis cool a little.
Spoon over the salsa, sprinkle with oregano leaves and serve.