Israeli cuisine spicy or sweet-and-sour, with ingredients such as bell peppers, chili peppers, figs, onion, artichoke bottoms, Swiss chard, beet, dried fruits, tomato, vine leaves, potatoes, mallow, eggplants and zucchini squash, and stuffing such as meat and rice in Balkan style, bulgur in Middle Eastern fashion, or with ptitim, a type of Israeli pasta. The Ottoman Turks introduced stuffed vine leaves in the 16th century and vine leaves are commonly stuffed with a combination of meat and rice, although other fillings, such as lentils, have evolved among the various communities. Artichoke bottoms stuffed with meat are famous as one the grand dishes
Stuffed squash similar as for punjene paprike or sarma. Often, punjene tikvice (stuffed squashes) and punjene paprike (stuffed peppers) are made together, as a mixed dish. The name in various languages generally means literally "stuffed squash": ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; "kousa mahshi" / ALA-LC: "kūsā maḥshī". In the Levant, this dish is flavoured with mint and garlic. In Cyprus, the flowers of the marrow are also stuffed. The cultivar is called "Cousa" in Robinson and Decker-Walters (1997) p. 77: "Some summer squash cultivars, e.g. the vegetable marrows ("Cucurbita pepo") are consumed when almost mature. In the Middle East,