Did someone say 'pizza'? 🍕

This creamy (and dairy-free) spread is our new favorite way to use up zucchini

It’s August, and zucchini has entered the chat. If you grow summer squash or have strolled the farmers market, then you know what it’s like when these green machines start dominating the conversation. It can feel a little…extra. A person can only stomach so much ratatouille or zucchini bread or zoodle salad, so I’m forever on the lookout for ways to use up maximum zukes with minimum effort. 

I recently found an answer in something called zucchini butter—a jammy spread containing no actual butter. In it, 2 pounds of squash cook down into 2 cups of a caramelized veggie marmalade that you can slather on toast, serve as a dip, or toss with pasta or risotto. We’re using it as a means to take a mountain of zucchini where the watery squash might otherwise dare not go: onto pizza. 

Part I: Honey, we shrunk the zucchini—into sauce

Zucchini is around 95% water and tends to break down completely if you work it long enough. That’s normally an obstacle, but in slow-cooking three-ingredient zucchini butter it’s an absolute plus, especially when shallots join the party. 

This recipe begins with a small bicep workout in the form of grating 2 pounds of zucchini. If you’ve got a food processor with a shredding attachment, now is its moment. After grating, you drain the shredded squash in a colander, or, if you’re feeling impatient, wring it out in a clean kitchen towel. Having been the victim of one too many soggy zuke recipes (RIP fritters), I recommend both. 

We’ve got a plan for this jam. Credit: Gabriella Vigoreaux

After the zucchini is nice and dry, it sautés with shallots in a healthy dose of olive oil for about 30 minutes (double what the recipe claims) until it completely breaks down and becomes jammy. Zukes prepared this way are just about the farthest thing from dull, watery vegetables you can get. Slow cooking in oil coaxes out more sweetness from the (usually) bland squash, cooks off the water, and reduces the veg into something creamy and brimming with big summer deliciousness. 

Hungry for more seasonal eats?
We turned watermelon into a main course.

The longer you keep it on the heat, the sweeter and jammier it becomes. It’s perfect as is, but I went off-book and added handfuls of mint and basil—both of which I’m also currently drowning in—and a hit of lemon to make it sing. The recipe is infinitely scalable (I doubled it) and nearly impossible to mess up. You could eat it as a side dish or use it to fill a galette and have pie for dinner. But if we’re talking dough, I’d rather put it on a pizza, my preferred vessel for summer veggies. 

Part II: This zucchini pizza will make you go “Tomato who?”