Our Recipes: Barche di Zucchine Gialle con Bolognese

July through September is the season for finding Yellow Zucchini. While they can be used in all sorts of ways, one of our favorites is to make Barche di Zucchine Gialle con Bolognese (Yellow Zucchini Boats with Bolognese Sauce). This is a very easy recipe and can be made with all sorts of topping variations: ratatouille, caramelized onions, eggplant or something simple like sliced tomatoes, basil and olives. Anything you can top a bruschetta with would also work well.

Yellow Zucchini (sometimes called Golden) are summer squash and have edible skins (unlike winter squash which are hard with inedible skins). Be aware that it might be incorrectly called something else, like Yellow Squash, which is fat at the bottom and tapers toward the top. Just be sure they are fairly straight and without a bent neck which makes a nice boat shape. 

Ingredients

• 2 Yellow Zucchini 
• 2 cups of Bolognese sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella or fontina
  
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt, black pepper, oregano as needed.

Directions

1. Before cutting the zucchini, lay them down on a counter to see which side lies flat. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise from top to bottom.
   
2. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds from all 4 halves.
3. Coat the flesh of the halves with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, then sprinkle with some salt, pepper and olive oil.
   
4. Spoon out the Bolognese sauce into the "hulls" of your little boats.
   
5. Spread shredded mozzarella cheese on top, then sprinkle some oregano on top. If you like a bit of heat, you can sprinkle some peperoncino (red pepper flakes) too.
   
6. Place on a sheet pan covered with foil and place in the oven for 35 minutes at 425F. If you like, you can put the broiler on for 1-2 minutes at the end to caramelize the cheese a bit more.
   

Serve your Boats with either a nice bottle of Chianti or if al fresco, a cooled bottle of Prosecco.

Boun appetito!

--Jerry Finzi