If you are a fan (or at least a follower!) of the blog, you may be well aware that we have three very healthy, productive zucchini plants that are thriving and putting out around 20-25 zucchini for us to eat per week. Some of these are very cute and small, others are a nice normal size, and we usually end up with about 4 that are quite large per week. I’m proud to say that we’ve succeeded in eating all of them or preserving them every week, so I wanted to share my secret weapon for keeping up with the zucchini madness – my method of making and freezing zucchini jam.
We’ve been making this every weekend with all of our remaining zucchini friends. The beauty of this method is that by cooking the zucchini down, you remove so much of the water, thereby concentrating the flavor and reducing the amount that you will have to store and freeze by at least half, if not more. I usually start by filling up my entire Dutch oven with shredded zucchini, which seems totally overwhelming at first, but I promise the volume will go down dramatically after boiling for an hour or so! This process does take some time, and I would strongly recommend a food processor or a grater attachment on a Kitchenaid Mixer to help cut down on the arm power. After reducing, I usually cook it a little longer to form some browning and caramelization to give it added sweetness and flavor, as well as to make sure I got as much moisture out of the zucchini as possible. Once I get a little color on the jam, I allow it to cool in the fridge before portioning into Ziploc bags and sending off to the freezer for later use. This jam is not acidic enough for normal canning, so please freeze this as it is definitely not shelf stable!
Another thing to add about this jam is that it’s super versatile. This past weekend we made a blend with tomato sauce added, and I usually season with plenty of garlic and herbs. Other fun additions would be caramelized onions, or some chilis or peppers for a spicy mix. Add whatever flavors you want now for a fun, ready made meal in the future!
Okay, so now you’ve made all of this zucchini jam – but what can you do with it? I’ve been using it as a sauce for pasta (it’s super creamy and sweet – almost like a cheese sauce with way fewer calories). Speaking of cheese sauce, this would be an excellent mix-in for mac and cheese, or an awesome add-in for soups, broths, or stews to make them heartier. This would also be great as a sauce for pizzas, or under some tomatoes on toast. Anything where you want to sneak in an extra serving of veggies un-noticed will work! I’ll post a pasta recipe that I made with some of last night’s batch in my next post. I paired the zucchini jam with some cherry tomatoes, fried garlic, Calabrian chilis, and Italian sausage – it was carby, garlicy, spicy, and perfect.
So, ready to make some zucchini jam? Step by step pictures are below!
Happy preserving, friends!
Step 1: Shred your zucchini! I use the larger setting on the grater, and a machine will help save your arm! 
Step 2: Look at all of that beautifully shredded zucchini. Into a Dutch oven or large pan with some olive oil and garlic!
Step 3: Cook on high heat. As it starts cooking, you’ll notice a lot of water coming out of the zucchini shreds. 
Step 4: Keep cooking on high! You’ll have a very unappetizing zucchini jacuzzi full of boiling zucchini juice.
Step 5: After about an hour of boiling on high, add salt, herbs, and any seasoning. Stir more frequently and scrape golden/brown bits from the bottom of the pan to give the zucchini jam some color. Cook until no more water is released and jam becomes golden brown in color. 
Step 6: The final result will look like this, nice and brown, with very small pieces of zucchini left. Remove from heat and allow to cool in the refrigerator, portion into freezer bags and freeze until ready to use! Note: This batch had some tomato added, so it’s a little darker than a batch with no tomatoes would be.
Posted by 
Claire Aucella 
Oh Wow! Zucchini Jam sounds interesting. Looks so good.
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Thank you!
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