Italian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

4.50 from 2 votes

Italian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash is like taking a delicious fresh bite of summer with garden fresh vegetables, quinoa and a deliciously easy fresh tomato sauce.

Prep Time15

Cook Time45

Total Time1

Course: Mains, Sides

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 153kcal

Author: HWC Magazine

Ingredients

6 patty pan squash
(about 3 inches or 7.5 cm in diameter)
2 tablespoon olive oil (1 tablespoon to fry up the quinoa mixture and 1 tablespoon to drizzle over patty pan squash just before baking)
1 onion
chopped
4 cloves garlic
peeled and minced
1.5 cups quinoa cooked (we used multi-colored but you could use plain or even rice)
½ cup spinach frozen (thawed and all the liquid squeeze out) – you can also use 3 cups fresh garden spinach and stir fry or steam just until wilted and bright green.
4-5 Tomatoes large peeled fresh (we simply cut the tomatoes in half. Grate them flesh side to the grater and then all that is left is the skin and you pitch that- much easier than that whole boiling ice water hack for peeling tomatoes) – add 1 tomato into quinoa mixture and 3 for the tomato sauce.
1 teaspoon Basil
dried
Salt and pepper
to taste
⅓ cup Parmesan cheese grated - optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
Prepare the Quinoa Mixture: In a medium pan add the olive oil, onion, 2 of the 4 garlics and sauté just until translucent. Add the cooked quinoa, spinach, tomato, basil and season with salt and pepper to taste and stir fry until all incorporated – 1-2 minutes. Add parmesan cheese and toss, if desired. Set aside.
Prepare the Patty Pan Squash: Wash the squash and cut off the top of patty pan squash. With a small spoon, scoop out the seeds carefully. (Try using a little coffee stirring spoon, teaspoon measuring spoon or a scooper for this task)
Prepare the Fresh Tomato Sauce: Spray the bottom of a medium sized baking pan 9 x 9 with a little oil or rub with a little olive oil. Place the remaining 3-4 chopped tomatoes, 2 garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Mix to incorporate.
Place the prepped patty pan squash on top of the bed of fresh tomato sauce in the baking dish. Stuff each patty pan squash with the prepared quinoa mixture press and pile high. Place the lids to the patty pan squash in the pan. Drizzle the Italian stuffed Patty Pan squash with olive oil and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the patty pan squash are tender.
Enjoy Italian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash with fresh tomato sauce!

Notes

We have a very simple hack for removing the skin from a tomato. Instead of going through all of the bother of scoring the bottom of tomatoes, boiling and then plunging them into an ice bath and then peeling them we have a very simple way to peel tomatoes without all of those steps. To simply peel tomatoes, cut your fresh tomatoes in half and use a large grater and just grate the tomato facing the flesh side into the grater directly into a bowl. The skin will separate from the skin. You will have a peeled grated tomato which is perfect for this recipe.

You can make the filling up to 3 days in advance and refrigerate. On they day you want to prepare your Italian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash, you can cut and stuff your squash and bake.

If you have not made your filling in advance, you can store your baked stuffed patty pan squash covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and then freeze up to 2 months. If you have made your filling days in advance, then store your leftovers in the freezer.

Nutrition