Mediterranean Shrimp-Stuffed Zucchini Boats Recipe

Stuffed vegetables are popular dishes in Italian cuisine, and don't think that the choice is limited to stuffed peppers — tomatoes, eggplant, onion, zucchini flowers, potatoes, mushrooms, round chili peppers, and zucchini are all vegetables that are commonly stuffed with various fillings. There are meat fillings of course, but you'll also see creative fish and vegetarian fillings featuring ingredients like cheese (think smoked provola, scamorza, crescenza, Pecorino, mozzarella, and ricotta), olives and capers, tomatoes, anchovies, tuna, other vegetables, and herbs. These are often bound with eggs and breadcrumbs or mollica, which is the soft, white inside part of crusty bread.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a stuffed zucchini boat recipe inspired by the tastes of these Mediterranean stuffed vegetables. Shrimp is the main feature of the stuffing, and it's complemented by the other ingredients, including garlic, grape tomatoes, Pecorino cheese, parsley, and the zucchini flesh that was removed from the shells and diced. The recipe is fairly simple. Carving out the zucchini halves to form the boat shapes is the trickiest part, but we'll explain how to do this below. The result is a dish that's not only delicious but also provides a fun and unique visual for your table.

For this recipe, you will need 4 zucchini. The best zucchini size for stuffed boats is generally medium, so keep that in mind when you're selecting the vegetable. You'll need olive oil for cooking the zucchini flesh and for greasing the pan, and garlic for flavoring the zucchini in the pan. Shrimp is the star of the stuffing ingredients, and it will need to be peeled, roughly chopped, and patted dry. Don't skip this last step, because wet shrimp can make the stuffing soggy. The other stuffing ingredients are an egg, grape tomatoes, breadcrumbs, grated Pecorino cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Finally, have a little tomato puree on hand for spreading on the bottom of the baking dish.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

After cutting off the ends, slice the zucchini in half lengthwise.

Carefully scoop out the zucchini flesh, leaving about ¼ inch of flesh intact around all 4 sides to form the boat shapes. Set the empty zucchini boats aside.

Dice the zucchini flesh and set it aside.

Heat the oil on medium in a large skillet.

Add the garlic and saute for 2–3 minutes, until it starts to color.

Add the diced zucchini and saute for 5–6 minutes.

Place the zucchini mixture in a large bowl, then add the shrimp, egg, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, Pecorino, 1 tablespoon parsley, salt, and pepper, and stir to mix well. Add more breadcrumbs if it seems too wet.

Oil a 9x13-inch baking dish and spread the tomato puree in a thin layer on the bottom.

Distribute the shrimp mixture evenly inside the zucchini boats and place the boats in the baking dish.

Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30–35 minutes, until the zucchini filling is golden brown on top and the zucchini boat borders are fork tender. Garnish with 1 tablespoon parsley after baking.

Let the zucchini boats cool for about 5 minutes, then serve.

Stuffed zucchini boats are a unique dish to serve, but hollowing out the zucchini into the perfect boat shape may seem like a daunting task if you're not familiar with how to do it. The task is a little delicate — too much force or pushing your tool too close to the outer edge could cut holes in the zucchini.

The method we used required a sharp paring knife and a thin teaspoon. Cut an outline of the boat shape on the cut surface of the zucchini half with the knife, leaving about ¼ inch of space between the outline and the sides of the zucchini. Make sure you stop pushing the knife down about ¼ inch before the bottom of the zucchini so you don't stab right through it. Then, carefully scoop the flesh out with the spoon inside of the outline. The side of a thin spoon will work like a knife to cut out chunks of pulp, but it offers more protection than a knife does from cutting through the zucchini skin and from cutting yourself.

Try to dig the spoon in to scoop out sizable chunks that you'll be able to dice later. If you scrape the flesh off with the spoon, you'll end up with thin ribbons instead of large pieces. If you prefer, you can carefully remove the pulp with the knife or use a melon baller. 

Yes, you can use frozen shrimp to make zucchini boats. The main concern is that it's easy to defrost frozen shrimp improperly, causing them to become waterlogged and make the final zucchini boats soggy.

If you have the time, a good way to defrost shrimp is in a colander in the refrigerator overnight. Position the colander over a bowl to catch the liquid dripping off the shrimp as they defrost. If that will take too long, you can defrost the shrimp in a colander placed in the sink under cold running water, although keep in mind that you'll have to use 10–15 minutes of running water, which isn't the most environmentally- riendly method. You can also opt to defrost them inside a sealed plastic bag placed in a large bowl of cold water for 20–30 minutes. Drain the excess water out of the bag before using the shrimp. You can try this salad spinner hack for defrosting shrimp – after soaking the shrimp in cold water in the colander part of a salad spinner placed inside the bowl part, drain the water and give the shrimp a spin to shake off most of the moisture.

No matter which method you use, pat the shrimp dry with paper towels before using them in the recipe. This will remove the extra water that causes sogginess.