Got lots of zucchini in your garden? Make a delectable zucchini butter. This savoury base of buttery, seasoned shredded zucchini becomes your secret weapon for quick pasta dishes, soups, stews, appetizers, omelets, burgers, and more. Stash bags or blocks of it in your freezer to pull out whenever you need to produce some last-minute meal magic.
Well, the garden's been doing it again - producing a zucchini invasion when I wasn't looking!
Where do all those @#$%!&! little #@$!%&*s come from?
I've been making zucchini salsa, zucchini relish, zucchini pie, zucchini soup, zucchini frittata, and even zucchini cake, but even those delicious dishes don't seem to whittle down the pile as fast as it reproduces!
Time to bring out the big guns! ZUCCHINI BUTTER.
What is Zucchini Butter?
Zucchini butter is a delicious mess of shredded zucchini. This one's flavoured with olive oil, butter, onions, lots of garlic, white wine, lemon zest, and a pinch of nutmeg. Slowly sautéed until the delicate shreds of zucchini have soaked up all that flavour and become buttery soft, you now have a secret-recipe base for some absolutely mouthwatering meals. It's a way to preserve summer's bounty for your eating pleasure all winter long.
What Do You Need?
- zucchini - of course! Any summer squash will work. Green or yellow, any shape or size. If the zucchini is large, remove the seeds and fibrous center. Cut it in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a spoon.
- onion - finely diced. Adds aromatic flavour.
- garlic - this makes the zucchini butter pop!
- dry white wine - all the alcohol cooks off, but it adds a rich complexity to the zucchini butter. You can substitute it with chicken or vegetable broth plus an extra teaspoon of lemon juice.
- lemon zest plus a bit of lemon juice - these really make the zucchini butter sing!
- nutmeg, salt, and pepper - for a fully seasoned dish. The nutmeg complements the zucchini and brings out its sweetness.
How to Make It
The first job is to trim the zucchini - remove the seeds if they are mature or if the zucchini is longer than about 10 inches (25 cm) long. Just slice the zucchini in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and fibrous center with a spoon and discard it. This just gets mushy when making the zucchini butter, and you don't want that.
Then shred the zucchini. I have a rotary hand shredder which makes fast work of the task, but the large holes on the sides of a box grater work fine, or even use a food processor.
The next step is salting the zucchini and letting it drain to get rid of excess water. You can omit this step, but it will take much longer to cook the zucchini until all the liquid evaporates. So it's worth it to take the time to salt and drain it first. The salt helps draw the liquid from the zucchini by osmosis, and then most of the salt is released into the water, which gets discarded, so it doesn't add extra salt to the zucchini butter. It does take a few hours to drain the zucchini after it has released its water, but you can alternatively squeeze out the excess liquid by twisting it out in a dish towel, if you need to save time.
Then sauté some onion and garlic in butter and oil. Add the drained zucchini, a good glug of white wine, and seasoning. Cook it all until the liquid has evaporated and the zucchini is tender, buttery, and aromatic. You can use it like it is, or purée it to chunky smoothness in a food processor if you'd like it to be more of a paste. I've done it both ways and prefer it more coarse and textured, but you do you.
Preserving that Gorgeous Zucchini Butter
It's easy to freeze zucchini butter. Let it cool completely, then measure out the amounts you want to freeze it in (pack it into a measuring cup to get the amount you require) put it into freezer bags, squeeze out the air, seal, label, and freeze. Or pack smaller, individual portions of zucchini butter into silicone muffin cups.
I like packing 2 cups of zucchini butter into freezer bags (for 4 servings of pasta), and I pack ½-cup portions of the zucchini into silicone muffin cups, freeze them solid, then pop them out of the muffin cups and put them into a large gallon-sized freezer bag to keep them frozen - then I can just remove one or more frozen pucks of zucchini butter to defrost or use as needed.
How to Use Zucchini Butter
Zucchini butter is extremely versatile. Once frozen, you can quickly defrost it and use it to make a wonderful, buttery Zucchini Pasta. For 2 servings, cook up 8 ounces (225 g) of your favourite pasta (gluten-free, if necessary) in salted boiling water. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water. Heat about 1 cup (or more) of the zucchini butter in a skillet with a half cup of the pasta water to loosen it. Add the cooked pasta, and more pasta water if needed. Toss well. Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan shavings and fresh parsley, and an extra drizzle of olive oil. Sensational.
Or make Zucchini Butter Crostini - toast slices of crusty bread. Rub them with a cut clove of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Top with a generous tangle of zucchini butter and some crumbles of feta cheese. You can add a bit of chopped parsley or dill, or a pinch of dried red pepper flakes for spice, and another drizzle of olive oil, if you like.
Or use your stash of zucchini butter:
- as the base for a soup, or to stir into a vegetable soup for more texture and flavour
- added to a casserole
- added to a pasta sauce, like a bolognese
- as a filling for an omelet or crepes, with an added protein if you wish
- as a base for a roasted or barbecued piece of meat or fish (delicious under a chunk of barbecued salmon)
- mixed into mashed potatoes, for a variation of Irish colcannon
- layered in a sandwich, to top a burger, or stuffed into a pita with other fillings
- in a quiche or frittata
- instead of caramelized onions
- as a stuffing for a meat loaf
- as a filling for empanadas or dumplings
- to fill ravioli (with extra seasoning and some added ricotta)
- served simply as a veggie side dish
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Guten Appetit!
Zucchini Butter
Ingredients
- 8 cups (1200 g) shredded zucchini, lightly packed to measure
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, for salting the zucchini to remove excess liquid
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup finely chopped onion (1 medium onion)
- 3 cloves garlic, grated or finely minced (1 tablespoon)
- ½ cup (120 ml) dry white wine
- zest of half a lemon, finely grated (1½ teaspoons)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Trim the ends from the zucchini. If they are larger than about 8 inches (20 cm), cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and remove the seeds and loose fibrous material in the center by scraping it out with a spoon. Shred the zucchini on the large holes of a box grater and pack it lightly to measure out 8 cups (1200 g).
- Put the shredded zucchini into a large bowl and toss it with the 1 teaspoon of salt. Let it sit for 30 minutes, tossing it every 10 minutes, to allow the salt to draw the liquid out of the zucchini. A lot of water will accumulate in the bottom of the bowl.
- Transfer the zucchini to a colander set over a larger bowl to catch the liquid (or set it into the sink to drain) for 3 - 4 hours. Discard the liquid. Alternatively, if you're in a rush, you can squeeze out the excess liquid by wringing the zucchini out in a clean tea towel.
- Heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat in a large dutch oven or heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes or until it is cooked and softened.
- Add the drained zucchini, wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
- Cook over medium-high heat, uncovered, and stirring every few minutes, until most of the liquid has cooked off. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking the zucchini, stirring often, until all the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is just starting to 'stick' to the bottom of the pan (but don't let it burn). This whole process will take about 30 minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if needed. The mixture should be well seasoned.
- Allow the zucchini butter to cool completely, then use it in your dish of choice or freeze portions in heavy-duty freezer bags - squeeze out all the air, seal, label, and freeze. Or pack portions into silicone muffin cups and freeze solid, then pop out of the muffin cups and store the frozen zucchini pucks in a large heavy-duty freezer bag. It will keep in the airtight bags for up to a year in the freezer and in the frozen 'pucks' for up to 6 months.
- Makes about 3½ cups of zucchini butter.
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