a giant

Earlier this week we made the decision to get some produce from the farmers market downtown on Thursday. I have a great recipe for stuffed zucchini and I was excited to make it again. Thursday morning Gabe went to work and soon after came home with a GIANT zucchini from his coworker's garden. GIANT. ENORMOUS.

(that is one of the largest cookbooks I have)

My first reaction was WOW, then um...what am I going to to with this thing. The recipe calls for 4 medium zucchinis. This whole thing was way bigger then 4 zucchinis. Maybe 6. Gabe basically challenged me to make it work since it was huge and free. Boiling it was a joke. I had to keep rotating it, then flip it to make sure the whole thing would soften. Overall though, it turned out pretty good. I just had to double the filling.

 I mean, for real. HUGE.

Here's the yummy recipe

4 med zucchini, about 2 lbs.

salt

pepper

3 tb EVOO

1 med onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 c freshly grated pecorino romano

2 tsp minced thyme or oregano

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tb bread crumbs

1.Bring several quarts of water to a boil in large saucepan. Simmer zucchini until they offer just a little resistance when pierced (about 6 min). Drain and cool. Trim the ends and slice zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and some surrounding flesh. The zucchini should still be about a 1/2 inch thick in most places.

2.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat 2 tb olive oil in pan. Add onion and sautee for 5 min. Stir in garlic and cook additional 2 min.

3. In a seperate bowl place onion mixture, ricotta and pecorino cheeses, thyme, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. Divide filling among hollowed out zucchini.

4. Add remaining olive oil to a baking dish. Arrange in a single layer. Sprinkle bread crumbs over filling.

5. Bake 40-50 min. Then, you're done!

We did still make it to the farmers market. Here are some pretty flowers we picked up for $5. I was able to split it and make two arrangements. Flowers definitely made our place more homey.