No, you’re not seeing double.  This isn’t yesterdays Vegetarian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash.  Wasn’t that yummy?  Aren’t patty pan squash just fun?  It’s even fun to say “patty pan”!  You know how The Goddess goes on about “options”.  By adding pizza flavors—pepperoni, pizza seasoning, fennel seeds, along with some cheese, to the vegetarian stuffing, we have really created a whole “new” dish.  Another option.  And a very nice option, too.

To be completely honest and forthcoming, I sort of, kind of, cheated here.  I made enough stuffing for four Vegetarian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash—two of which I served as a side.  To the filling for the remaining two, I added pepperoni, pizza seasoning, fennel seeds and garlic granules, along with some cheese, stuffed this mixture into the remaining two squash, and cooked all four together.  The hardest part was remember which two were which!  The Latin Lover isn’t a huge fan of summer squash, but it turns out, he liked the vegetarian version.  Okay, he didn’t love it, but I’ll take “liked”.  Imagine my surprise today, when he asked if there were anymore of “those squash things”?   As you know, life has been a tad busy around here, but for once in her life, The Goddess was planning ahead and could definitively and resoundingly say “Yes”!  I hadn’t planned on serving these today, but you don’t have to ask me twice, right?  I cooked some pasta, tossed it with some marinara, reheated the remaining two patty pans, with the pizza flavors, all the while congratulating myself on being so “organized” and clever.  And dinner was served quickly!  The Latin Lover did confess that he preferred the Pizza-Flavored Patty Pans and I’m okay with that.  I think these were almost better reheated. I nuked them on about 50 percent power, and they reheated very well.  So dinner was easy tonight.  Options!  These are just two options, but there could be all sorts of deliciousness stuffed into the summer squash of his future!

Confused yet?  Welcome to my world!  But I digress and this little mental meander comes to an end and we’re back to the recipe at hand.  I added the fennel seeds to give the flavor of Italian sausage, without the sausage (a note for vegetarians!).  I think next time I would sauté the pepperoni a bit, sort of crisp it up.  The pizza seasoning is just a blend of herbs, with some red pepper flakes, all in one bottle!  It was one of those impulse buys, that turned out to be a good thing.  Did I mention that The Goddess, at times, can be just a tad lazy?  Yes, she can.  Anyway, some crumbled bacon bits, some cooked rice, diced bell peppers, some black olives, artichoke hearts…whatever you like on pizza, can be added to the recipe.  Since I had only made two, I adjusted the recipe ingredients to make sufficient stuffing for four squash.

So here’s the deal.  I’m not going to repeat all the steps from yesterday, just head over to the Vegetarian Stuffed Patty Pan Squash post for the instructions to pre-cook the patty pans and see how the filling generally goes together.  Once you have your filling cooked, add the pepperoni, fennel seeds, garlic granules and Italian (or Pizza) seasoning (except for the marinara), to the vegetarian filling.  When slightly cooled, then add the cheeses and any other additions, so long as they are already cooked.

I love stuffed summer squash.  The patty pan squash are just too much fun, but you can use any summer squash.  The baking times may vary, depending on size of the squash and the amount of stuffing.  If I use zucchini, I would spoon some marinara over the tops of the stuffed squash.  I’m not talking drowning them in marinara, but just a bit, maybe 1-2 tablespoons per squash.  The sauce will keep the filling from drying out too much and will certainly add some flavor as well.  I think this could be quite delicious using eggplant, instead of squash.  Just throwing it out there!

If you are choosing to limit your pasta intake (why would you do that to yourself?), you can serve these little bundles on a pool of marinara, sans the pasta.  Very tasty that way, too…options!