The World Cup Food Challenge - Day 3 Uruguay (Zapallitos Rellenos)

When I think of Uruguay, there is only one name that comes to mind. All right, not quite true, one or two others do occur to me. So, let me qualify: this year, you say Uruguay, one name comes immediately to mind. And while I am sure, being the believer in the 6 degrees of separation theory that I am, I know somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody... But still, I doubt I could really just pick up the phone and ask Luis Suárez what food from home he misses while he's off at Merseyside. Actually, come to think of it, in today's world, I could probably also have him a message on Facebook or Twitter, but let us not go there. The sad conclusion was therfore, that I do not have a Uruguayan connection, and thus had to once again turn to my old friend, Google, for help. I am starting to wonder how many of these recipes will be a personal recommendation. Only one out of three so far! No matter, pressing on.

For Day 3, I made Zapallitos Rellenos or (Uruguayan) Stuffed Zucchini. I do not suppose by any stretch of the imagination that the Uruguayans were the first or the only ones in the world to stuff a zucchini, but it does seem to be common or popular. By this, I mean of course that it appears to be a common and popular recipe when one searches online for Uruguayan recipes. I suspect how it is prepared or the stuffing used is what makes it Uruguayan. I had initially intended to prepare this dish with two different types of stuffing: the seemingly more common, and therefore possibly the more traditional, version with a breadcrumb filling (see, för example http://www.shashek.com/Recipes/DataFiles/Recipe/hold.recipes/Uruguayan_Stuffed_Zucchini_-_Zapallitos_Rellenos.shtml); and the one I eventually made. I was short for time and had to choose.

Uruguayan Stuffed Zucchini
I based my dish on this recipe: http://paggipazzo.com/2012/09/06/uruguayan-grilled-zapallitos-rellenos/
I deviated from the recipe mainly in that the recipe was for a grilled zucchini, which I took like a proper grill, outdoors, etc., not the "grill" function in the oven. Also, the mozarella I had in the fridge expired about three weeks ago, and smelled like it too! And as I did not discover that until I began preparations, I used to only suitable alternative I had in the fridge, gouda.

Ingredients
(The recipe I followed gives more specific quantities. I just picked a random zucchini and put the ingredients together in some kind of proportion to make up enough stuffing to fill the one zucchini.)

1 zucchini
olive oil
sun dried tomatoes (cut into small pieces)
garlic
1 small onion (I used shallots because that was all I had)
gouda (grated)
a few slices of prosciutto (cut into pieces)
1 tbsp flour

Method
1. Cut the zuchinni in half lengthwise, and carve out the filling for each half, leaving about a quater of an inch on each side. Bake the zucchini lengths for about 20 mins at 150°C. (This is the first deviation from the original recipe. Putting the zucchini seemed to be a common step in the other version of the Uruguayan stuffed zucchini, and since mine was not going on the grill, I thought I would go for it. I say about 20 minutes, but really, I left it in there for about as long as it took me to prepare the rest of the stuff. I turned up the heat a bit in the last 5 minutes or so.)
2. Chop up the carved out zucchini into small pieces for the filling.
3. Fry onion and garlic till caramelized.
4. Add zucchini filling and stir on medium heat for about 5 minutes.
5. Add prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes. (Next deviation. The recipe adds mozzarella at this stage as well. But I figured that if I did that with gouda, I would just end up with one big messy glob, so I didn't.)
6. Add flour. (I am not sure what purpose this serves but I did it anyway. The recipe said that it will form a thick creamy texture... Erm, no it didn't. But it might be because I didn't have the mozzarella. Oh well...)
7. Remove from heat and mix in gouda.
8. Stuff filling into zucchini and bake at about 180°C for about 15-20 mins, until the filling starts to brown. 
9. Enjoy!

Verdict: success! I love baked / grilled zucchini, so I really enjoyed this. And of course, you cannot really go wrong with prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. I will definitely be making this again.