The other day I posted a before and after photo of the stuffed squash I made to take to my sister’s house for Easter. Since a number of you wanted a recipe, here goes!

Stuffed Squash

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked Farro (cooled)
2 cups Ricotta (drained)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 cup shredded provolone
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 of a red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped onions
8 zucchini squash (or you can do 4 zucchini and 4 yellow squash like I did)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook farro according to package instructions. I used 1 cup of farro, 2 cups water, and some salt and set the mix to boil. Once boiling, I lowered the heat to have a very low boil. It took roughly 20 minutes for the farro to be cooked. Farro is a great ancient grain similar to barley. It’s slightly more al dente than rice and holds up well in a recipe like this where you are going to cook it again. I would actually leave it more al dente so it doesn’t get mushy. Cool the farro.

Saute the mushrooms, bell pepper, carrots, celery and onions in olive oil. I start with the mushrooms at high heat until they are half-done and then add the bell pepper and cook some more. Finally the carrots and celery for a minute or two before adding the onions. Mushrooms have a lot of water and doing them first at high heat helps avoid you steaming the rest of the veggies. Cook until all the vegetables are starting to brown.

Add vegetables to farro. Then add the ricotta, 1/4 cup of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the provolone, and the basil. Mix well.

Cut off the ends of the squash. Slice your squash in half the long way. With a teaspoon, scoop out the center to make a little canoe (leave some meat on the ends to keep the filling from spilling out).

With a teaspoon, spoon about 3 to 4 teaspoons of the farro mixture into the scooped out squash canoes and place in an oiled 9 x 13 pan. Top the filled canoes with the rest of the mozzarella and provolone. Dust with the grated parmesan. Add about 1/4 cup water to the bottom of each pan to prevent burning and provide some steam for the initial cooking.

Cover the pans with aluminum foil and bake covered for 20 minutes. Then remove the covers and bake for another twenty minutes uncovered. If the cheese has not toasted at the end of 40 minutes, give it a quick 2 or 3 minutes under the broiler!

And that’s it! Hope you enjoy today’s Tuesday Tip!