August Recipe... Squash Ravioli

How is August's Challenge going of adding more fresh produce? I hope it is going well. If you need ideas, be sure to check out Tuesday Recipe Posts because many of them have fresh produce in them. For this week, I thought I would give you a new recipe! It has been awhile. As a mark of goodness, it is Hublet approved.

Beings that August is all about veggies and last month we gave up grains for a time, here is a ravioli recipe. Instead of pasts, I used yellow zucchini squash as the "ravioli" and inside is meat and several fresh veggies. As a fare warning, this recipe does take some time to make, so I will give you an easier version as the end, no excuses.

What you need:
1 lb of ground beef, can us any type of ground meat
1 medium to large zucchini or 2-3 small ones
4-5 garlic cloves
1/4 to 1/2 onion
3-4 small ripe tomatoes
small bunch of fresh basil or to taste, dried use several tsp
sea salt and pepper to taste
splash or two of balsamic vinegar
3 medium to large red peppers
olive oil

Method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place red peppers on a baking sheet. I like to use parchment paper, makes clean up much easier. Once the oven is heated, put the peppers into the oven. About every 10-15 minutes, rotate peppers until all sides of the pepper skin begin to pull away from the flesh of the pepper. Some of the skin will be blackened, but the flesh will not be.

Take the peppers out of the oven and allow to cool until you can touch them. Remove the skin, steam, seeds and any bad spots you find once you open up the pepper. Put the pepper into a blender and blend with salt, pepper and several drizzles of olive oil until smooth. Place into a small sauce pan and keep warm.
While the peppers are roasting, chop or put garlic, tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, balsamic and ground beef into a food processor, mix well until everything is chopped and mixed. If chopping, mix all of the same ingredients well after chopped. Allow this mixture to sit while you prepare the zucchini.
Pill the zucchini. If it is larger, slice in half. Use either a peeler or mandoline to thinly slice the zucchini. I have found with a large zucchini, slicing it in half gives you long enough slices to roll the meat in it. Once all thinly sliced, lay out 2-4 slices. If they are wider, I used two, if thinner, I used 4. If using 4, weave together, if 2, make a cross.

Put a dollop of meat in the center of the zucchini.

Then, alternate the ends over the top of the meat dollop until rolled up. Lay them on a baking sheet, again with parchment paper with the folded side down so it does not come unraveled.

Once the peppers are out of the oven, put the ravioli in. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick they are and how done you like your meat.
Take out of the oven and serve with the roasted red pepper sauce over the top and enjoy knowing you are feeding yourself and your family a healthy, fresh meal!

I served mine with this salad.

tomatoes
mozzarella cheese
olive oil
fresh basil
balsamic vinegar
fresh lemon
salt and pepper






A faster way to make this ravioli:
I would still roast the red peppers. Follow the instruction above for that.
Dice up all the rest of the produce. Mix the meat and produce together and put into a baking dish. Cover and cook until the meat is finished. Should take about 15-20. Drizzle the roasted red pepper sauce over the top and enjoy!

I hope you find this recipe tasty like we do.
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God's abundant blessings,
Jenn