What to Do with All that Zucchini
Jul 2nd, 2009 | By Hank | Category: Cooking Basics, Italian, The Garden | Comments | 21 Comments |
It’s zucchini time in California. The annual Overrunning of the Squash has arrived. Yes, fresh zucchini are good — excellent, if you get them before they’re as big as truncheons — but anyone who grows zukes always has too many. And don’t get me started on zucchini bread. Not a fan.
I pickled some zucchini last year and they were good, but not as good as cucumber pickles. How else could I preserve them? Drying.
I’d read somewhere that the Southern Italians sun-dried their zucchini to keep them through the year. I’ve even seen a web page offering dried zukes from Sicily jarred in olive oil — at $10 plus shipping. Seriously?
But, try as I might, I could find no recipe or method for sun-drying zucchini anywhere on the web, or in my not insubstantial cookbook library. So I improvised.
I began by slicing the squash into disks. I then sprinkled salt on a large cookie sheet and set the disks down on them, and when the cookie sheet was filled I sprinkled the tops with salt.
I let this sit an hour. Now zucchini are basically squash-flavored water, so I was pretty sure an hour would draw out a lot of moisture and get the salt all the way into the slice — to preserve it from mold. It worked. Too well, in fact. In my next batch I’ll only “cure” them for 40 minutes if I am not going to put them up in jars. After an hour, the zucchini is borderline too salty to eat fresh, but would work well as a preserved product.
How to dry them? This took some thinking. I’d heard that the French string-dry their zucchini like apple rings, so I tried doing that. Not so good. The string will sag and the zucchini will all touch each other, slowing drying and trapping moisture — promoting mold.
Better was a metal or wooden skewer. At first I hung these in an ingenious ghetto fashion: I attached the skewer to the clips on the kind of coat hanger designed to hold skirts or pants. Nice, but then Holly couldn’t dry her clothes. I then switched to using our sausage/pasta drying rack.
These zukes above had been drying for a day in our very hot, very dry garage. I guess it was about 110 degrees in there at its peak, “cooling” to 70 at night. At that rate, the zucchini only took 36 hours to get to the soft, quasi-dried apple texture I wanted.
Could I have dried them all the way? Sure, but then I’d need to reconstitute them, and why bother? I might have dried them another 12 hours if I wanted to preserve them in oil. When they’re done, they look like this:
Kept like this in the fridge, I bet they’d last months. In this state, zucchini are still pliable and soft, but feel more like soft leather than watery squash disks. Chewy instead of crunchy. Savory instead of thirst-quenching, as a raw zuke can be on a hot day.
I plan to make more of these to preserve in olive oil later. But to start I wanted to cook these as I’d heard the Sicilians do: In olive oil, with mint and chiles. Holly thought I should add garlic, and I might do that next.
The dish couldn’t be easier, although there is one tip I can offer: Dried zucchini lack the water that normally causes that pleasing sizzle in a hot pan, so you might think you’re not heating the squash enough at first. Trust yourself, they will brown nicely. Keep turning them over until you get the look you want. I like a combination of well-browned bits with those just kissed by flame.
Make more of these than you think you need — Holly and I ate four zucchinis’ worth at one sitting with no trouble. Here is the full recipe.
If you’re interested Hank, I have a great recipe for a Northern Italian torta that can be done with zucchini. Very rustic. Got it from my wife’s grandma, who got it from her mother who brought it with her through Ellis Island.
Let me know.
Nice. I like the non-dead animal dishes.
Hank – my mouth is watering! These look great.
I could just cry… my zuks won’t grow, and neither will my cukes. I’m certain my soil has a bacterial wilt in it… Next year, new soil, and big, raised beds.
In the meantime, I’ll bum some off the fam damily.
I’m overrun with tiny green and deliciously tart apples growing in my backyard. With over 7,000 varieties, I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what they are, but I never suspected it was an apple tree. I’ll trade you my mystery apples for some zuccinni!
By far my favorite way to eat zucchini is a sort of a flash-drying process: Slice them very thin lenthwise on a mandoline, like 1/8 inch, then put them on a hot charcoal grill for 30 seconds or until they just begin to brown, turn, grill 30 seconds more, and then spread on a plate and drizzle with salt, olive oil, and fresh spear mint. One grill-full tends to correspond to one layer. The texture is incredible, fully cooked but al dente rather than mushy. I’m told this is a Neapolitan preparation; it’s clearly closely related to your Sicilian style.
Any word on the lard crew?
Rob: Yes! Sent it along.
Rebecca: These zukes were from farmer’s market, but I might have a need for those apples…
Ben: Sounds excellent! And I’m having some trouble rounding up Sacto folks who need pork fat. OK all you who are reading this: If you want some Bledsoe pork fat, email me so we can set up an order!
While I would happily kill for good pork fat, Pennsylvania is not exactly in your neighborhood (although I’m on vacation in Seattle, but still too far off…sigh…)
On the other topic, while I realize that zucchini bread is not everyone’s thing, I do have a fabulous recipe for a chocolate zucchini cake that could seriously drive you to distraction.
Intriguing combination of ingredients and techniques. I’ll have to try it out, but first we need to grow the things! Hoping to have our first squash by Aug 1.
As long I get a taste of whatever the apples become, we’ve a deal. You and Holly should swing by and grab a bag.
The zukes are overrunning the garden here so this post comes in real handy Hank. Thanks to all for their recipes
Zuccini is the only vegetable with it’s own zip code.
Advice picked up from Cornell on growing squash. Do it in containers with new potting soil each year.
Hank,
Don’t forget the often neglected Zuccini Cannon for purposes of home defense. Squash on.
DMS
wow… in love with this idea. really, really in love with it. i wish i had more damn space to do things like this.
I worked in Trenton when I got out of college and there was this joke that I heard in the “Little Italy” section of the city In late summer, you need to keep your car doors LOCKED or you will find your backseat full of Zuccinis in the morning. Everyone had gardens and grew the stuff.
Many years ago, when Molly O’Neill had a column in the NYTimes Magazine, she wrote about growing up in the kind of place where no one ever locked their cars. Except in zucchini season, when, if you left it unlocked, you would come back to find your car filled with zucchini.
Just found you (via Cottage Smallholder). Thanks for the zucchini tips. Since I just signed up for my hunter safety class, I’ll be back for the game recipes.
PS — And just now I see that another commentor heard the same story! It got around, I see.
[...] So, you got a few zucchini left over from yesterday’s excursion to the garden or from your friend’s last visit 10 minutes ago? Read the tale that goes along with the recipe from Hank Shaw, aka Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and “boyfriend” of outdoor blogger Holly Heyser, who does most of Hank’s food photography. Lucky gal, lucky guy and lucky us … ‘cuz this zucchini recipe looks mouthwatering marvelous. See http://www.honest-food.net/blog1/2009/07/02/what-to-do-with-all-that-zucchini/ [...]
[...] fruit and vegetables. Hank over at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook had me licking my lips over his dried zucchini. But we don’t have a sweltering garage and I didn’t want to waste fuel running the oven all [...]
Having made my way here via The Cottage Smallholder, and with the inevitable glut of zucchini (or courgettes as we like to call them), I am now desperate for Rob’s Northern Italian torta recipe.
Can you pass it on please?
[...] aside from a plan for zucchini bread/cake/muffins, trying out Sun-dried Zucchini, and wondering about the feasibility of zucchini chips…I’m on the search for fresh [...]