Perhaps not quite the long-term storage the OP had in mind, but here is a good mid-term solution that surely reduces the volume and extends the life of your summer squash. This is a Hank Shaw recipe from honest-food.net; he's good. Having said that, I have collected this recipe but not yet tried it myself:
Sicilian Dried Zucchini
PREP TIME: 4 hours
TOTAL TIME: 4 hours 5 min
SERVES: 6
Southern Italians are known to sun-dry their zucchini, and then either put them up in jars covered in olive oil, or sauté them as a side dish. Both variations on this technique are presented below.
The initial salt cure should be limited to 30 minutes for quicker cooking. Go a full hour if you are going to put them up in jars. After an hour, the zucchini is borderline too salty to eat fresh, but works well as a preserved product.
How to dry them? An electric dehydrator can dry zucchini rounds in anywhere from 2 to 8 hours. But there’s a low-tech method, too. After salting, arrange the zucchini disks on a metal or wooden skewer and hang dry them on a rack. A perfect place to do so is a hot, dry garage, which could take 36-48 hours depending on conditions. [Might be problematic during humid summers like my own…?]
In this state, zucchini are still pliable and soft, but feel more like soft leather than watery squash disks: chewy instead of crunchy.
INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT:
- 4 zucchini (about 3 lbs), sliced into ¼” disks
- salt
- dehydrator
- skewers, if you are not using a dehydrator
For cooking within days (up to a month)
- olive oil
- ½ tsp powdered cayenne
- 2 TBS fresh mint, chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, sliced very thin
- juice of half a lemon
For longer-term storage
- white wine vinegar
- olive oil
- glass jars
DIRECTIONS:
For cooking within days (up to a month)
1. Sprinkle salt on a large cookie sheet (or two), then lay the zucchini on them. Sprinkle more salt on top. Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes, then pat dry with a towel.
2. Dehydrate at 120°F until pliable but leathery, about 3 hours. Alternately, skewer and hang in a hot dry place for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the temperature, humidity, and air circulation. In either case, you want them to be dry, but not hard. Think soft dried apricots.
3. Store in a Ziploc in the fridge.
4. When ready to cook, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat until almost smoking. Add the zucchini rounds and garlic and toss to coat with oil.
5. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. (Note that 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.)
6. Add the cayenne and mint; toss to combine. Turn off the heat.
7. Squeeze the lemon juice on the zucchini before serving.
For longer-term storage
1. Sprinkle salt on a large cookie sheet (or two), then lay the zucchini on them. Sprinkle more salt on top. Leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then press the zucchini gently with a cloth towel to remove as much moisture as possible.
2. Dredge in white wine vinegar.
3. Dehydrate at 120°F until quite leathery, about 4 hours. Alternately, skewer and hang in a hot dry place for 36 to 72 hours, depending on the temperature, humidity, and air circulation.
4. Store in the refrigerator in a glass jar completely submerged in olive oil.
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