Zucchini meatloaf

ingredients

for the meatloaf
Medium zucchini
4
Cheese
150 gr
Bread crumbs
100 gr
Egg
2
Basil
1 tuft
Sale
q.b.

For the stuffing
Fontina
6 slices
Baked ham
100 gr

for the breading
Bread crumbs
3 tbsp
Extra virgin olive oil
q.b.

Zucchini meatloaf is a light and appetizing second course . Perfect to be enjoyed in the summer when courgettes are in season, it has a stringy and tasty filling made with diced cooked ham and fontina cheese . Ready to conquer young and old, it is a delicious dish that invites children to eat vegetables in an alternative way. It can be served both hot and warm , accompanied by a light salad of fresh datterini tomatoes, a tomato sauce or a yogurt cream.

To prepare a compact and tasty zucchini meatloaf, it is better to anticipate the preparation times. Just combine the grated and salted zucchini with eggs, breadcrumbs, basil and grated cheese. The dough is rolled out, covered with sliced ​​fontina cheese and cooked ham cubes, rolled up and finally cooked in the oven.

You can customize the zucchini meatloaf recipe according to your tastes. You can replace the cooked ham with speck or tuna or omit it for a totally vegetarian version . Similarly, ricotta , scamorza, or another stringy cheese can be used instead of fontina.

Let’s find out together how to prepare zucchini meatloaf in a few simple steps.

How to prepare zucchini meatloaf

Step 1
Wash the courgettes, peel them and chop them with a grater to obtain thin matches. Collect them in a bowl, add salt and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes. After the rest time, squeeze them hard1and remove excess water.

Step 2
Gradually collect the courgettes in another bowl, then add the grated cheese and eggs2, the breadcrumbs and the chopped basil and knead carefully to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Step 3
Roll out the zucchini-based dough on a sheet of parchment paper and form a rectangle of about 20×30 cm (3).

Step 4
Arrange the slices of fontina cheese and the diced cooked ham in the center of the rectangle4.

Step 5
Using the oven paper, roll up the meatloaf and wrap it tightly5.

Step 6
Coat a plumcake mold with a sheet of oven paper and transfer the meatloaf inside. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and drizzle with a drizzle of oil6, then bake at 200 °C for about 30 minutes until the surface of the meatloaf is golden brown.

Step 7
Once the cooking time has elapsed, take the meatloaf out of the oven and let it cool down, then unmold it, garnish with a few basil leaves and serve7.

Advise
Cooking in the plumcake mold allows you to obtain the classic meatloaf shape, while maintaining a very soft consistency. If a more compact result is desired, a boiled and mashed potato can be added to the courgette-based mixture.

storage
The zucchini meatloaf can be kept in the refrigerator , covered on the surface with a sheet of transparent film, for a maximum of 2-3 days . Before consuming it, heat it in the oven anyway, just long enough for the cheese to melt.