Every week -- often with your help -- Food52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius.
Today: A simple preparation turns zucchini into the best version of itself: butter.
We've turned bananas into ice cream, white chocolate into caramel, cauliflower into steak -- for our next bit of alchemy: zucchini will become butter! Or at least convincingly butter-like.
Zucchini butter is simpler than you'd ever think, and tastes richer than any vegetable has a right to. The technique comes via The Kitchn from a caterer in Los Angeles named Jennie Cook (also known, incidentally, for her Funny Cake).
It's barely a recipe at all, but a concept you'll find yourself returning to as your counter keeps piling up with summer squash. I'm sharing it with you now, while squash is still new and you still find little crooknecks and pattypans and their cousins with equally cute names irresistible.
Whenever you come home with a bundle of squash, this is the best, purest way you can distill it. (And then in about a month, when we're overrun, it will still be a happy way to dispense with lots of them at once.)
Here's how you make butter out of squash: Take a little olive oil or butter (or both), melt in some minced shallot or garlic (or both), then dump in a lot of grated squash. You can pre-salt and wring it out it if you want to, but it's really not necessary.
It turns out zucchini wants to be butter. Grated fine, it cooks down quickly, pooling into a soft, freckly green pile. (Food52er inpatskitchen, who first tipped me off to zucchini butter, does the same trick with radishes.)
More: Another place to put grated summer squash? In Summer Weekend Pasta, with corn and basil.
If it sticks to the bottom of the pan, that's actually great. You can keep deglazing with a little water, scraping up the stuck-on bits as you splash it in. You might end up with something a bit more caramelly brown than what you see in the photos here, and it will rock your world.
How to use it? Spread it on toast in place of actual butter. Cake a thick layer in a sandwich with salted tomatoes or soft cheese. Sauce a grilled pizza. Consider it a side dish. Or just eat a big heap of it, right out of the pan, like we did.
From Jennie Cook by way of The Kitchn
Makes about 2 cups
2 pounds zucchini or assorted summer squash (feel free to use less or add extra -- cooking times will vary)
1/4 cup olive oil or butter
2 minced shallots, garlic, or combination of both
Salt and pepper
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
Photos by James Ransom
From our new podcast network, The Genius Recipe Tapes is lifelong Genius hunter Kristen Miglore’s 10-year-strong column in audio form, featuring all the uncut gems from the weekly column and video series. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss out.
Listen & Subscribe
Written by: Kristen Miglore
Popular on Food52
56 Comments
So upon reading the note I saw this recipe (which I'd never come across before). My friend had taught me to make zucchini this way after she had lived in Italy for a number of months.
I loved its simplicity and ease of being able to modify it, especially once I couldn't eat onlons or garlic anymore. I've always used it as a side dish and never thought of it as a "butter"... but I could see the appeal to place it on a slice of toast. Especially since my British mother placed canned beans and spaghetti on toast for me as a child. Not sure I can refer to it as Zucchini Butter, but I do love it as a change of pace. So many options with this recipe.
I am just about to make zucchini relish and can it, and would like to try this insetad.
I'm going to put it in jars and put it next to my freezer jam!
Joyce P.
Life-altering...finally something to do with the actual squash instead of just frying up the blossoms then muderizing the annoyingly prolific plant! http://themuddykitchen.com/duxelle-stuffed-fried-squash-blossoms/
My recipe is a little different. Grate zucchini and put in colander (salting between layers) Let sit for 1/2 hr and squeeze out water. Saute shallots in butter till soft and add zucchini Cook till semi-soft and add a "dollop" of heavy cream and salt and pepper. (taste before salting) Definitely one of my favorites.
for me. I think freezing would work well too.
Making "Costata Romanesco butter" this afternoon!
I'll let you know how it goes!
See what other Food52 readers are saying.