STUFFED ZUCCHINI WITH MINCED MEAT IN TOMATO SAUCE

 
This is a traditional Macedonian dish that will delight your close ones with its taste and look.The preparation time is about 30-40 minutes and the baking time is a little long, about 2 hours, so you'll need to begin earlier with the lunch. I had 4 larger zucchinis and 1 eggplant. You can freely make combination of zucchinis and eggplants.
 Ingredients: 

  • 4-5 wider zucchinis (I cut mine in 3 pieces)
  • 500 g minced beef and pork mix
  • 1 larger onion
  • 5-6 cloves of garlic
  • a handful of rice
  • 500 ml tomato juice
  • 1 tsp red paprika
  • Vegeta (1 flat tbs)
  • parsley
  • black pepper
  • oil
Preparation:
  1. Fry half chopped onion on oil. Add chopped garlic.
  2. Add the minced meat and fry.
  3. Add about 150 ml of tomato juice.
  4. When everything is fried, add red pepper, spicy salt or Vegeta and black pepper. Set aside.
  5. Cut zucchini (as on pic). Remove the inside of zucchini. Fill them with the meat mixture and cover with slices of fresh tomato or leave open as I did. Put filled zucchini in a baking pan.
  6. Put the zucchini leftovers in a blender together with half an onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic.
  7. When blended, put them in the same pan where you fried the meat, add some oil and the rest of the tomato juice and bring them to boil.
  8. Pour this mixture over zucchini.
  9. Add some oil and shake pan so the tomato juice penetrates in zucchinis.
  10. Bake in oven at 250 C for 2 hours, until the zucchinis are browned and tomato juice is thickened. Cover the pan with aluminium foil if the meat starts to burn.
  11. Decorate with parsley and serve warm.
  12. When cut, pour over thick tomato juice.

Enjoy!