By Dana McMahan
FoodConnect Louisville
dana@foodconnect.com

It’s definitely summer squash season. I’ve read that here in the South people who don’t normally lock their doors start locking up at night — just so they don’t receive deliveries of surplus squash from their neighbors.

At my farm share pickup last week my zucchini and squash allotment was two pounds, plus as many sunburst (aka pattypan) squash as I wanted. Ralph, the farmer, selected a couple hefty ones when I told him I’d like to stuff them. I’d never cooked with these cheerful looking sunshine-yellow squashes before but could just picture them stuffed and topped with crispy breadcrumbs.

I pondered for a couple of days, flipping through cookbooks and searching the web for a recipe. I wasn’t sure what I wanted in it, but knew it had to be topped with panko (the key to any fantastic dish!).

I finally found inspiration in a recipe for a cheese-stuffed pattypan on , and went to work Sunday night.

We sliced the bottoms off to make them sit level, and lopped off the tops then scooped out the inside. You could sauté the innards if you like, but I thought we’d have enough just with the edible shell.

We dropped them in boiling water for about ten minutes while the toaster oven heated up. If you’re making more and July doesn’t mean 100 degrees (and your AC works a little better than mine) you’d use your oven.

For the stuffing we mixed up about four ounces of goat cheese and a couple ounces of blue cheese. I stirred some parmesan, thyme, pepper and paprika into panko crumbs.

Stuffed with cheese and topped with the seasoned panko and couple dots of butter, the squash baked at 325 degrees under a foil tent for about 15 minutes, then for a few minutes minus the foil.

I served them atop a bed of brown rice with a side salad of tomatoes from the farm, fresh mozzarella and basil. It was delicious – the cheese filling oozed out into the rice and I ate well past the time I was full.

I’ll definitely bring these out for company (and wouldn’t lock my doors against a delivery!)

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