Recipe

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini With Tomato Basil Coulis Recipe

	Barbiemensher / All my dishes 9 months, 3 weeks ago I make everything from scratch if I can but you could certainly just buy pre-made Italian sausage. Not as fun but it will do. This could also serve as a meal. Prep:40m Cook:20m Servings:12	Barbiemensh
	italian flavourful

Does this look good? Yeah! / Nope

Fans

momo_55gra

Ingredients

3 lbs Pork shoulder - tough skin removed

2 cups red wine (good enough to drink)

2 Tbsp coarse salt (1 Tbsp if using table salt)

10 gloves garlic - minced

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 Tbsp sweet paprika

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp anise seed

1 tsp fennel seed

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp cayenne*optional - heat the sausage to your taste

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

6 small zucchini OR 12 pattypan - yellow or green

For Tomato Basil Coulis: 3 large tomatoes - blanched, peeled, seeded

1 small onion - chopped

12 basil leaves (plus sprigs for garnish)

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 clove garlic - blanched and minced

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup Fontina cheese - shredded *optional

Directions

*I tried using my food processor for this but it didn't work for me. You may have a better machine, though. If you prefer to use store bought sausage, go right ahead. Remove the casing and proceed with the instructions for the coulis and the zucchini.

Italian Sausage: Chop the pork shoulder into cubes and pass through a food grinder. Make sure you have at least a 1 to 5 ratio of fat to meat.

To the meat, add the next 11 ingredients, combine well with your hands but don't over mix, set in the fridge and marinate overnight or at least 8 hours.

Tomato Basil Coulis: Place the tomato, onion, basil, sugar, salt, black pepper, garlic and lemon juice in a blender and purée until smooth. Add water to loosen to get a very thin tomato consistency. *You can use tinned tomatoes off season (6-8 whole small Romas) and use the juice to loosen. Adjust seasoning and set aside.

Test a small portion of the sausage by frying it in some olive oil. Adjust the salt and heat if necessary before proceeding.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise. With a spoon, dig out a trench down the centre to allow for more filling. If using pattypan, cut the top 1/3 off and dig out some of the centre. Reserve the tops to replace afterwards.

Brush the zucchini with olive oil and stuff them with sausage. Amount of filling depends on size of squash but estimate about 1/4 cup per long squash, about 2-3 Tbsp for the small ones. The sausage will shrink while cooking so it's best to mound it high.

Place on foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until done. *If using the pattypan, brush the tops with olive oil and add to the oven during the last 10 minutes of baking. *You can also add shredded Fontina during the last 10 minutes to push this dish over the top, although I would only suggest this addition for a main course - it's too filling as an appetizer.

Heat the coulis but do not cook it. Place a ladle full in the centre of the plate, add the stuffed zucchini and garnish with fresh basil sprig. Serve immediately.

***I thought it would be nice to use a combination of zucchini and pattypan however, and I only mention this to spare anyone embarrassment, avoid serving one long one and flanking it with two small, round ones. It took a lot of back peddling to get out of that faux pas, although we did get a great laugh out of it.

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