Fry

Tuscan stuffed Celery

by:
March 12, 2012
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0 Ratings
Tuscan stuffed Celery
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

Tuscany has an amazing culture for vegetable recipes, some of which quite unknown outside. The rich soil and maybe the need to be creative in times of hardship have made vegetable recipes abound.
This recipe uses celery stalks as it’s main ingredient. They are stuffed with a meat mixture and then cooked in a meat ragu. The meat ragu is a basic meat sauce like you would make for a lasagne, but keep it on the thin side. You can use ready made or make your own. Sometimes I only use tomato sauce because I can do with little meat and it’s also very good but the original recipe calls for meat sauce.
—Maria Teresa Jorge

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 12 celery stalks - young
  • Filling
  • 10 ounces ground veal - ground twice
  • 5 ounces mortadella - ground
  • 2 ounces chicken livers - ground
  • 2 eggs - lightly beaten
  • 1 tablespoon parsley - chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic - chopped
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • 3 tablespoons parmesan cheese grated
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • To fry
  • 1 egg - beaten
  • flour
  • Olive oil
  • To cook
  • 4 cups Meat sauce
Directions
  1. MEAT FILLING: In a bowl mix together the ground veal, mortadella, chicken livers. Add the parmesan cheese, nutmeg, parsley, 2 eggs and mix well to obtain a smooth mixture. Add salt and pepper to your taste.
  2. PREPARING THE CELERY STALKS: Rinse stalks thoroughly in cold water and pat dry. Peel the back of the stalks using a vegetable peeler to remove the stringy portion. Cut in 3” pieces, choosing the lighter part.
  3. STUFFING AND COOKING CELERY - FIRST PART: Cook the celery stalks in boiling water for 2 minutes, remove and cool. Fill 1 celery stalk with meat mixture, put another celery stalk on top and press to adhere. Dip in egg and flour and fry in olive oil.
  4. COOKING THE STUFFED CELERY: Put the fried stuffed celery stalks in a pan with the meat sauce and cook in a low heat for 30 minutes or until very tender.
  5. Serve warm.
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  • loubaby
    loubaby
  • LeBec Fin
    LeBec Fin
  • Maria Teresa Jorge
    Maria Teresa Jorge
  • sexyLAMBCHOPx
    sexyLAMBCHOPx

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10 Reviews

N V.
N V. September 29, 2018
Made this just because I was looking for something different. Huge hit. If you are feeding young people the meat sauce is necessary. We loved it, but will probably just use a good marinara the next time. The leftover filling made the best meatballs I have ever had.
 
loubaby
loubaby March 26, 2012
This is very interesting...sounds like it would really taste good using zucchini instead--but then I am not a celery person...but do you think the celery flavor is really critical here?
 
Maria T.
Maria T. March 26, 2012
Hi loubaby, I'm not a celery person either but the dish in the end is very nice. I make zucchinis and eggplants with the same filling and I cook them in the oven with tomato sauce - but then I don't eat much meat. I think with the tomato sauce it's great whichever vegetable you use.
 
LeBec F.
LeBec F. March 23, 2012
HA! that's so funny! I had no idea it was traditional! I wonder if there is an Italian expression for "one man's ceiling is another man's floor"?!
 
Maria T.
Maria T. March 24, 2012
Maybe but I don't know the meaning of the expression "one man's ceiling is another man's floor" because I'm not english.
 
Maria T.
Maria T. March 23, 2012
Thanks
 
LeBec F.
LeBec F. March 13, 2012
What a fascinating recipe.Who woulda thunk it- canneloni filling in celery?! For me,since it already has a meat filling, i think i'd aso really like it if, instead of a meat sauce, it had a beschamel and simple marinara over the celery. I love it that you put the celery pieces together and give your guest a wonderful surprise as they cut into it!
thanks so much for this!
 
Maria T.
Maria T. March 23, 2012
Thank you Le Bec Fin.
Bear in mind that this is a TYPICAL dish, so I wrote the recipe as is made in Florence.
 
Maria T.
Maria T. March 23, 2012
Thanks.
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx
sexyLAMBCHOPx March 12, 2012
Very nice!