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This comforting, cheesy ground beef and zucchini casserole is a true one-pot dinner you can throw together quickly, and it makes fantastic leftovers. You’ll want to make this delicious, homemade comfort food a permanent part of your meal plan.
Did you wake up this morning with a bag of zucchini on your front porch from your sneaky gardening neighbor? Hi, it’s me. I’m that neighbor, and I feel zero guilt for “squashing” everyone on my street.
If you find yourself trying to use up excess summer squash, this ground beef and zucchini casserole is the one-pot dinner of your dreams!
And while I recommend how much mozzarella and Parmesan to add to this recipe, we all know that cheese should truly be measured with your heart.
For the marinara, store-bought is fine! Look for a jar that is ~20 oz. And don’t forget to add a teeny bit of water to the empty jar, put the lid on, and shake it up to get every last drop out and into your ground beef zucchini casserole.
You might also love to use our homemade freezer spaghetti sauce in this recipe.
Take it from me – don’t skip the process of salting and pressing the zucchini between two clean towels while you make the sauce. This helps draw out moisture from the squash so that your ground beef zucchini casserole doesn’t become too watery.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Thinly sliced zucchini works best for this recipe. I used my mandoline to make sure the slices are consistently the same size.
- To cut down on dishes, use a dish that can go directly from the stove to the oven. Something like a 4-quart Dutch oven or a braiser pan would work great. If you don’t have something that will work, follow steps 1-7 in the printable recipe card below, and then transfer to a deep 9×13 casserole dish to bake
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Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
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Thinly slice the zucchini and place the rounds on clean kitchen towels. Sprinkle evenly with sea salt.
1/4 tsp sea salt
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Lay a clean towel over the top of the zucchini slices and place something heavy (like a casserole dish or Dutch oven) over the top. Set aside.
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In a large frying pan, braiser pan, or Dutch oven, brown the ground beef over medium heat.
1 lb ground beef
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When the ground beef is almost fully cooked, add the garlic and onions and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.
2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup onion
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Drain any grease if needed.
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Add the marinara sauce, basil, oregano, and slowly stir in the heavy cream (if using). Allow the sauce to simmer for ~2 minutes.
2 1/2 cups prepared marinara, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 1/4 tsp dried oregano
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Remove ~two-thirds of the sauce from the pan and put it into a bowl. Set aside.
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Top the sauce left in the pan with half of the zucchini slices and sprinkle with half of the mozzarella.
3 cups zucchini, 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
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Distribute the remainder of the sauce over the zucchini and cheese.
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Top that with the remaining zucchini, mozzarella, and all of the Parmesan.
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
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Bake at 350˚ for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the cheese is lightly browned and the sauce is bubbling.
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Allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes and serve.
- To cut down on dishes, use a dish that can go directly from the stove to oven. Something like a 4-quart Dutch oven or a braiser pan would work great. If you don’t have something that will work, follow steps 1-7 above, and then transfer to a deep 9×13 casserole dish to bake.
Serving: 1cupCalories: 289kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 19gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 70mgSodium: 639mgPotassium: 552mgFiber: 2gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 727IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 221mgIron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
