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Stuffed Summer Squash

paula

In an early 1960’s cookbook from Chattanooga, Tennessee, I found three or four versions of recipes for stuffed yellow summer squash. The sheer number of recipes in one cookbook led me to believe two things: First, stuffed summer squash must be a southern thing. Second, it had to be good. Thus, I set out to make my own version of my newly discovered dish.

It would have been very sensible of me just to make one of the recipes from the cookbook for the first time, but I have never been accused of being too sensible…

Luckily, the dish turned out great. In fact, my husband was such a fan that he insisted I not tweak the recipe some the next time I made it…yeah, he knows me.

Once you fill the squash with the stuffing mixture, you may have some leftover. You can just place the leftover squash stuffing in a small baking dish and bake it with the rest of the squash. It will reheat well the next day.

We eat the stuffed squash as a main dish, but it would also be a great side vegetable dish.

This dish is easily turned into a vegetarian dish by simply omitting the bacon. You could also substitute sun-dried tomatoes or mushrooms instead of the bacon.

 

Recipe: Stuffed Summer Squash

Ingredients:

  • 5 medium yellow squash
  • 3 small yellow squash
  • 4 slices of bacon
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp. onion, grated
  • 1/4 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 c. panko breadcrumbs
  • 1 – 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. butter, melted*
  • 1-2+ Tbsp. olive oil

Instructions:

  1. Parboil the whole squash until tender. The smaller squash will be done faster, but leave them in until the medium squash are tender enough. (Parboil means to add them to boiling water and just cooking until tender, but not fully cooked). Remove them from the boiling water and allow to cool some. (You don’t need to put into an ice bath.)
  2. Meanwhile, cook bacon until done and crumble it into small pieces (or you can cut it into small pieces prior to cooking if you desire).
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  4. Slice the larger squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out larger seeds, etc. and discard. Reserve any of the squash “meat” (pulp) removed while you scoop out a well the body of the squash. Make sure to leave plenty of “meat” so the squash will easily retain its shape as it cooks further.  Then, place the squash halves in a lightly greased baking dish.
  5. Remove blossom and stem end from the small squash and cut them into small pieces (large dice). Place them in the bowl with the reserved squash.
  6. Add bacon, grated onion, cheese, 1/4 c. breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly to make the stuffing.
  7. Fill the prepared squash halves with the squash stuffing mixture.
  8. In a small bowl, combine the remaining breadcrumbs, parsley, and enough of the oil to thoroughly coat the  panko crumbs.
  9. Top the stuffed squash halves with the crumb mixture.
  10. Extra stuffing may be placed in a small, lightly greased baking dish and topped with any remaining breadcrumbs.
  11. Bake until golden brown, about 20 -25 minutes.

Notes:

*You can use just olive or another mild oil.

Copyright © 2015.
Recipe by Paula, A Simple Home Cook.

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