Skillet Zucchini Parmesan
Creamy, saucy skillet zucchini parmesan folded together with a gooey cheese sauce and garlicky marinara sauce.
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Zucchini parmesan is the new eggplant parmesan. Get over it! This is one of those easy, feel-good, weeknight meals that hits all those classic Italian flavors. Creamy cheesiness folded together with sliced zucchini topped with a premade marinara sauce. It’s the simple cooks dream! Everything melts together in the oven into a bubbly cheesy skillet. You’re going to want to eat this with your fingers. This vegetable version is a lighter, faster version of the classic chicken parmesan, with fewer steps, one pan to clean, and a gooey cheese sauce. There’s always extra zucchini lying around in the summertime, whether you’re using up your neighbors garden zucchini or just a 4-pack of zucchini you got from the grocery store, this dish totally slaps!
Weeknight dinners are all about simple and easy ingredients. Substituting components of the recipe that may typically take a long time for store-bought ingredients that doesn’t sacrifice the integrity of the final dish. That’s where store-bought marinara sauce comes it. I can’t help but be a Rao’s marinara sauce fan. If you ask my mom, she would pull her own red sauce out of the freezer.
This one pan dish starts with lots of garlic. The foundation to a great parmesan. The garlic browns up with some sliced shallots and before they go too far you cool them down with a big splash of white wine. This gives a gorgeous balance to an otherwise heavy cream sauce. Time to add in the cream and make the mornay. A simple béchamel with melty cheese. Using parmesan and mozzarella here. Taste for seasoning before it’s time to add the zucchini.
The zucchini is the easy part. After slicing all the zucchini into even rounds or half moons you will be folding them into the cheese sauce directly. It’s important that the zucchini’s moisture is taken into account. To avoid all the moisture risking the consistency of our sauce we make sure to make a very thick cheese sauce resulting in a gooey cheesy final bake.
Top this skillet with plenty of melty cheese before baking in the oven. That’s it! A delicious homemade Italian dinner done in less than 30 minutes with the help of a ready made marinara sauce. To recap, be sure to put lots of love into that delicious cheese sauce (use whatever cheese you have if short), use your favorite store-bought or frozen red sauce (it’s 2025, store-bought marinara sauces are so in), and be sure to thicken that sauce up a lot to get the perfect creamy texture in the end. You’re going to love this one.
Skillet Zucchini Parmesan
Yield(s): Serves 6 - 8
10m prep time
30m cook time
Allergens: Milk
Diet: Vegetarian
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cups freshly grated mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup reserved
- 3 zucchini, sliced into 1/2" rounds
- 1 cup store-bought or premade marinara sauce
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 425°F
- In a heavy-bottomed or cast iron pan over medium-high heat.
- Add olive oil to the pan with shallot, garlic, and chili flakes. Cook for 1 - 2 minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with white wine and reduce heat to low. Once wine is almost gone, add in cream.
- Once cream has started to simmer, add parmesan and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Season this cream sauce with salt and pepper then fold in sliced zucchini.
- Remove from heat and spread the zucchini evenly in the pan. Spoon over the marinara sauce and top with cheese. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly.