Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: How could something doused with marinara and sprinkled with cheese not taste absolutely heavenly? Texture: While oven “frying” the zucchini doesn’t produce the crispiest results, the texture is still surprisingly crave-able. Ease: Much easier than chicken parmesan or lasagna. Appearance: Any food that has a small, geometrically perfect shape is always going to be pretty. Pros: This is a perfect recipe for sneaking in some vegetables to your life and can easily be adapted to whatever squash or vegetable that’s in season. Cons: The recipe involves a 2-step oven process, nothing difficult though. Would I make this again? Yes, but probably with a different squash as the seasons change.This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Lately I’ve been inspired to cut down on my meat intake and increase my vegetable intake. Doing so improves my health, my wallet’s health (meat can get expensive), and the planet’s health. What do I have to lose? I’ll admit that I grew up consuming some type of meat or poultry daily, so it is a bit of a challenge for me to alter my diet like this. I’ve never been the type of person who can survive off salads alone – I prefer something warm and fulfilling. This is where my recipe for zucchini parmesan comes in. Its hot and bubbling, oozing with cheese, and full of the last of summer’s mild tasting zucchini. I ate this for dinner with a side salad and a hunk of crusty bread and completely forgot I had skipped eating meat that day.
Layered Zucchini Parmesan
Ingredients
- 3 large zucchini, sliced into 1/3-inch coins
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated and divided in half
- 1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
- salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 cup marinara sauce, homemade or bottled
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Coat a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
- 2. Blot zucchini coins with paper towels to remove excess moisture. Place zucchini in a medium bowl and drizzle with olive oil, turning to coat each piece. In a separate bowl, combine half the parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.
- 2. Dip each zucchini coin into the parmesan mixture, turning to coat and pressing the breading slightly to ensure it sticks. Place breaded zucchini coins in one even layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes or until browned and crisp.
- 3. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Coat the bottom of a small baking dish with marinara sauce. Layer one third of the crisp zucchini coins over marinara, overlapping if necessary. Sprinkle zucchini layer with mozzarella and the remaining parmesan. Repeat the layers 3 times (or until the zucchini is gone, depending on the size of your baking dish) ending with a sprinkling of cheese.
- 4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbling. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
OMG so Delicious!!!!!! My daughter is a nutrition major and made this for us for dinner one night when she was home on brake. I’m making it for dinner tonight! thanks for sharing 🙂
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Made for dinner and my daughter and I couldn’t get enough. Will definitely try the salt idea to make them crisper, but it was a delicious way to get our veggies in :o)
this looks delicious… but do you think pre-salting the zucchini to draw out some of moisture would make them crispier? anyway just a thought, I will be trying it… especially if I can get my kids to eat it!
[…] got the recipe from Handle the Heat and only tweaked a few things: I ground my own bread crumbs from a whole wheat loaf, substituted […]
[…] Crush 20. Grilled Zucchini, Goat Cheese, & Pesto Panini from Running to the Kitchen 21. Layered Zucchini Parmesan from Handle the Heat 22. Zucchini, Squash, & Ricotta Galette from Eat Yourself Skinny […]
Made this tonite…Fantastic.. I used panko crumbs and a homemade marinara sauce. I will be making this again.
I made this last night for my zucchini hating husband and zucchini risotto, and we both absolutely loved this recipe! It was delicious. 25 mins was perfect to get the zucchini nice and crispy, and I put it back in the oven for about 25 mins (we like our cheese melted but crispy on the edges…I was also busy stirring risotto and couldn't move, haha). I think the only thing I would do differently as a home cook would be to spray the zucchini with EVOO spray for a more even and lighter coating. When I drizzled, the zucchini soaked it up like a sponge and I had to add a little more or pat down the bread crumbs/parm rather firmly to get any to stick.
menoumenoume!
I made this tonight and it was amazing! I do not measure ingredients but I used everything like the recipe says, I cook my zucchini for 25 minutes and then layered an bakes it. This recipe is now a family fav! Thank you for this : )
OH my please stop pinning these delicious recipes.I'm trying to lose weight and ooooooo they look sooooo good!!! Maybe if I cut down on the bread crumb it won't be that bad.
It won't be quite so creamy, but they make pretty yummy skim mozzarella cheeses, too. Just pan-cook the zucchini first, or just roast in the oven without breadcrumbs. Easy-peasy, super healthy!
This is an amazing recipe! I'm recently on a really weird new diet (low-FODMAP) which includes no gluten..so I made this with gluten-free breadcrumbs…and no garlic/onions, so I made homemade marinara. But it was so tasty and healthy. I let the zucchini sit for longer than suggested but good either way. Thanks!!