Dovlecei Umpluti — Print Recipe

Tender zucchini halves filled with a savory mixture of ground beef, rice, and herbs, baked under a blanket of tomato sauce and sour cream.

Ingredients

4 medium zucchini
300g ground beef
100g rice, rinsed
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
200g tomato passata
100ml sour cream
2 tbsp sunflower oil
Fresh dill, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp sweet paprika
Salt and black pepper

Instructions

1 Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the centers with a spoon, creating boat-shaped shells. Reserve the scooped flesh.
2 Sauté onion in oil until golden. Mix with ground beef, rice, garlic, chopped zucchini flesh, dill, parsley, paprika, salt, and pepper.
3 Fill each zucchini half generously with the meat mixture, pressing it in firmly and mounding slightly.
4 Place stuffed zucchini in a baking dish. Mix tomato passata with a splash of water and pour around the zucchini.
5 Cover with foil and bake at 180C for forty-five minutes. Remove foil, spoon sour cream over each zucchini, and bake ten more minutes.
6 Serve hot with the tomato sauce from the pan spooned over the top. Garnish with extra fresh dill.

Did You Know?

In Moldovan villages, the first zucchini of summer are always reserved for making dovlecei umpluti, a dish that signals the true arrival of warm weather.