If you have a giant zucchini in your garden and don’t know what to do with it, make this Giant Zucchini Parmesan – it’s so good!
Giant Zucchini Parmesan
My brother gave me a bunch of very large zucchinis from his garden, so I will be sharing lots of recipes using oversized zucchinis. The first one up is this easy Zucchini Parmesan. I put my air fryer to the test and loved how it turned out. The crisp breaded zucchini rounds are topped with marinara sauce and gooey melted cheese. For more of my favorite parmesan recipes, try my Eggplant Parmesan, Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan, and Roasted Broccoli Parmesan. And see all my zucchini recipes here!
What to Make with Giant Zucchini
Giant zucchinis can sometimes be bitter if raw, so they’re best eaten cooked. They would be excellent in baked goods, like cake, bread, or brownies. You’ll have plenty of zucchini, so double the recipe and freeze half for later or give some to a friend. Oversized zucchinis are perfect for stuffing since they’re so large. Try my Taco-Stuffed Zucchini Boats or Sausage-Stuffed Zucchini Boats.
Zucchini Parmesan Ingredients
- Zucchini: Season the giant zucchini slices with salt and pepper. This recipe would also work with eggplant if your zucchini weren’t big enough.
- Coating: Mix two eggs and a teaspoon of water in a shallow bowl and put seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs in another. Dip the zucchini slices in the eggs and then breadcrumbs. If you’re allergic to eggs, substitute them with aquafaba, and if you don’t have seasoned breadcrumbs, add your own Italian seasonings to plain ones.
- Cheese: Combine part-skim ricotta, part-skim shredded mozzarella, and grated Pecorino Romano cheese with parsley in a bowl.
- Sauce: Top the zucchini rounds with jarred or homemade marinara sauce.
How to Air Fry Zucchini Parmesan
Air frying zucchini parmesan made the breadcrumb coating extra crispy, but if you don’t have an air fryer, you can pan fry or bake them in the oven at 425F degrees 18 minutes, flipping halfway.
- Air fry the breadcrumb-coated zucchini for 12 minutes at 380 degrees. Turn them over halfway through and bake until golden and tender.
- Place the zucchini on a baking sheet and top with the tomato sauce and cheese mixture.
- Bake them for about five minutes until the cheese is melted. You can also do this last step in the air fryer – Cook the zucchini for a minute or two at 350 degrees until the cheese melts.
What to Serve with Zucchini Parmesan
Serve this air fryer zucchini parmesan with a big green salad or pasta on the side. If you have leftovers, they’ll last in the fridge for three days and can be reheated in the microwave.
Your comments are helpful!! If you’ve tried this Giant Zucchini Parmesan recipe or any other recipe on Skinnytaste, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear your thoughts, variations and feedback. And if you took some photos of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can re-share on my stories!
More Giant Zucchini Recipes You’ll Love:
- Zucchini Pizza Bites
- Cream of Zucchini Soup
- Crustless Summer Zucchini Pie
- Turkey Burgers with Zucchini
- Naked Greek Feta Zucchini Turkey Burgers
Giant Zucchini Parmesan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup part skim ricotta
- 6 tablespoons part-skim shredded mozzarella
- 1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, plus more for garnish
- 1 giant zucchini, sliced into 12 1/2” thick slices
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs , or gluten-free crumbs*
- olive oil spray
- 1 cup warmed marinara sauce, Jarred is fine, plus 1/2 cup more for serving
Instructions
- Combine the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and parsley in a medium bowl.
- Season both sides of the zucchini with salt and pepper.
- In a shallow plate, beat the eggs and 1 teaspoon of water together. Place the bread crumbs in another plate.
- Place each zucchini round in the egg, then the breadcrumbs.
- Spray a generous amount of olive oil spray on each side and transfer to the air fryer basket in an even layer, in batches as needed.
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Air fry 380F for 12 minutes turning half way, until crisp, golden and tender in the center. Set aside. Transfer to a baking sheet.
- Spoon each piece with 1 generous tablespoon of sauce, then 1 tablespoon of the cheese mixture.
- Bake until the cheese is melted and golden, about 5 to 6 minutes. Garnish with parsley if desired.
- If you prefer to do this all in the air fryer, you can air fryer in batches 350F until the cheese is melted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Garnish with parsley if desired.
No Air Fryer, No Problem!
- Bake the zucchini in a preheated oven 425F on a sheet pan sprayed with oil until golden, 18 minutes flipping halfway.
Great recipe. I did a double layer to make it look more like a lasagne, and everyone loved it. (I used eggplant as well; both came out great.)
Delicious! I used eggplant, and the slices were beautifully crisp. I think this will become a meatless Monday staple.
Do you think it will work with eggplant
Oops, already answered in another post. yes
These were so good!! Thanks for another great recipe 🙂
Does this freeze well?
This was soooo good. A friendly neighbor left a ginormous zucchini on our patio table and I had no idea what to do with it. When I found this recipe I realized I had almost all the ingredients- substituted fat free cottage cheese for the ricotta, followed advice of another comment and added a sprinkle of garlic to the cheese mixture , and used plain Panko breadcrumbs and seasoned with Pency’s Pasta Sprinkle. It just goes to show you that you can’t go wrong with this recipe!! It was my 4 PP breakfast today. 👍🙌😍
What air fryer do you use / suggest? Recipe looks great, can’t wait to try!
Delicious!! I used Greek Yogurt (plain) instead of ricotta to up the protein (and because I already had some). This really hit the spot without a lot of calories!
It doesn’t seem fair to use an alternative ingredient and then reduce the rating. Perhaps made correctly it would have been ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Made this tonight with a giant yellow squash from our garden and it was delicious. Both hubby and I really enjoyed it and plan to make again soon. We’ve got LOTS of zucchini and yellow squash coming in right now.
Hi! Do these turn out soggy or??
Excellent! Made in the oven as air fryer wouldn’t accommodate all and didn’t want to make in shifts. Super easy. Served with Meatballs. I also chopped some fresh basil from the Garden and sprinkled on top.
Great!!
This looks delicious and I look forward to giving it a try. However Gina one of my
most favorite zucchini recipes from you are zucchini enchiladas. I could eat them everyday. I’ve shared the recipe with both my sisters and a few friends. They love them. Even my meat loving-I-wont-eat-any-vegetarian-dishes husband liked them. This is a miracle! Thank you for all your delish and healthy recipes. I use them often.
Ooh yes!!
Thank you Nancy! I’ll have to look that recipe up too.
We missed a zucchini in the garden, so it was gigantic when picked. This was perfect, and the only thing I didn’t have was ricotta. We topped the rounds with a half cherry tomato and basil before the final bake. This will be a regular dish for us – thank you for the recipe!
Hello,
In the Giant Zucchini Parmesan recipe, what does the
*1/4 cup gets tossed refer to? I see no place where it goes. Am I just missing it?
It refers to the breadcrumbs 🙂
I have your V remi air fryer…. need a new one. Which one are you loving now?
If you don’t have super large zucchini and decide to cut length-wise, do you think the cook time would be the same?
Sure as long as the thickness is the same
I made this last night and it was a hit! Doubled the recipe because I had two large zucchini to use. Added garlic powder and 1/2 tsp salt to the cheese mixture. Used a blend of panko and regular unseasoned bread crumbs. Paired with grilled hot Italian sausage made fresh in the morning. Definitely a keeper!
The serving size is 1 ‘stack.’ How may is that? Also, I could not find a zucchini that size so will be using a much smaller one.
I was wondering that, too!
Me too!
Recipe states 4 servings, so 1/4 of recipe?
Hi!! Your breadcrumbs are so fine, which brand do you use?
4C
A friend gifted me a giant zucchini today, and I saw this recipe minutes later. Meant to be and absolutely amazing!!! Didn’t have ricotta or cottage cheese, so used a dollop of French onion dip and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt. Delish! Thanks Gina!
Would you clarify the serving sizes? The recipe indicates you should have 12 zucchini slices to yield 4 servings…. But the serving size listed is “1 stack” for 242 Calories…. Is one stack just one round?
Great catch its 3 pieces
Would this work with eggplant?
yes!