Name: Zucchini Sausage Rolls
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 medium zucchini (about 8 oz. total), scrubbed; 1 small white onion (about 4 oz.), halved; 8 oz. ground pork; 1¾ cups panko; ¼ cup finely chopped parsley; 2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil; 1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon zest; 2 tsp. coarsely ground fennel seeds; 2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt; 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper; 2 tsp. garlic powder; 2 tsp. paprika; 1 large egg; 1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed

Beige rolls on a white plate with a side of ketchup.

Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Paola Andrea

If you’ve relegated sausage rolls solely to the finger-food category, you’re missing out. Bulked out with vegetables, they make a splendid dinner or lunch that will entice even picky eaters. Zucchini and onion—which are finely grated in an almost equal ratio to the ground meat—are cheap and plentiful, and they prove to be flavorful padding along with the panko, stretching the meat further. But perhaps more important, they provide pools of moisture that enable you to mix the meat vigorously in the style of dumplings or kebabs, making the filling juicy and bouncy rather than dense and leaden. The resulting sausage rolls are light but substantial, encased in buttery, burnished pastry.