Stuffed squash, courgette, marrow, mahshi, or zucchini is a dish common in the region of the former Ottoman Empire from the Balkans to the Levant and Egypt, a kind of dolma. It consists of various kinds of squash or zucchini stuffed with rice and sometimes meat and cooked on the stovetop or in the oven. The meat version is served hot, as a main course. The meatless version is considered an “olive-oil dish” and is often eaten at room temperature or warm.
The name in various languages generally means literally “stuffed squash”: Croatian: Punjene tikvice; Serbian: Punjene tikvice; Serbian Cyrillic: Пуњене тиквице; Albanian: Kungulleshka të mbushura; Macedonian: Полнети тиквички; Bulgarian: Пълнени тиквички; Greek: Γεμιστά κολοκυθάκια ; Turkish: Kabak dolması; kousa mahshiArabic: كوسا محشي / ALA-LC: kūsā maḥshī.[3
Have you ever had one of those days when you decide to Google a recipe before posting and the results come up with a slightly different name (in this case the majority of recipes are called Bienenstich) and is *just* different enough (Bienenstich aka German Bee Cake is apparently a yeast-based cake while this recipe uses baking powder).
I am going to be honest here- I have never heard of the Italian Love Cake until I found this recipe card in a random recipe box that I found at Amvets. Should we tell Candy Rinaldo that the card she so nicely wrote out ended up at the thrift? I did find some random websites that claimed that this cake was “made famous” by Mario Batali but this card appears to date before he made it famous. Who knows. It does look super-rich and sweet though.