Giardiniera
This giardiniera is closer to the Chicago style than to the classic Italian one, where the vegetables are briefly cooked in vinegar: here the vegetables are never cooked. They first sit overnight in salt water that draws out their moisture, then soak in cold spiced vinegar and go into jars with the vinegar and olive oil raw. That is why they stay firm and crunchy. It is a fridge preserve, not a pantry one.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Cutting 30 min
- Brining 720 min
- Vinegar 15 min
- Vinegar soak 45 min
- Jarring 20 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCut everything to a uniform dice
Dice the vegetables to about 1 cm and break the cauliflower into florets of the same size. Even pieces take up the brine and vinegar at the same rate, and giardiniera, eaten by the spoonful or piled onto a sandwich, reads as one mixture rather than separate vegetables.
Ingredients: 400 g cauliflower · 300 g carrots · 250 g celery · 2 pcs red peppers · 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs chillies
A 1 cm dice — a mixture, not separate pickles.Brine overnight
Dissolve the salt in the water, pour it over the vegetables and weight them down with a plate so they stay submerged. Leave 12 hours. The brine draws water out of the cells — without this the vegetables dilute the vinegar and within a week the liquid tastes of nothing.
Ingredients: 1500 ml water · 80 g salt
Weighted with a plate, fully submerged.Drain and dry thoroughly
Drain, rinse briefly under cold water to wash off the excess salt, drain well and dry in a cloth. Water from the vegetables would dilute the vinegar, and the keeping quality of giardiniera depends on its acidity.
Ingredients: 400 g cauliflower · 300 g carrots · 250 g celery · 2 pcs red peppers · 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs chillies
Boil the vinegar with spices and cool it
Boil the vinegar with the garlic, oregano, peppercorns, bay and sugar for 5 minutes and cool it completely — easiest done the evening before, when the vegetables go into the brine. Hot liquid would cook the vegetables and undo all the work of the brine.
Ingredients: 500 ml white wine vinegar · 400 ml olive oil · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oregano · 2 tsp peppercorns · 3 pcs bay leaves · 1 tbsp sugar
Soak in the vinegar
Pour the cold spiced vinegar over the vegetables and leave 45 minutes, stirring once. The vinegar should penetrate without softening them. Do not pour the vinegar away — it goes into the jars with the vegetables.
Ingredients: 400 g cauliflower · 300 g carrots · 250 g celery · 2 pcs red peppers · 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs chillies
Pack the jars, add vinegar and oil
Pack the vegetables and spices tightly into four sterilised jars (about 500 ml), divide the soaking vinegar between them, then top up with olive oil until the liquid sits a centimetre above the vegetables. Run a skewer around the sides to release air bubbles and add more oil if the level drops. The vegetables must be fully submerged.
Ingredients: 500 ml white wine vinegar · 400 ml olive oil · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oregano · 2 tsp peppercorns · 3 pcs bay leaves · 1 tbsp sugar
Oil a centimetre above the vegetables, no air pockets.Wait a week in the fridge
Close the jars and keep them in the fridge for at least a week before eating. Freshly made giardiniera tastes mostly of vinegar; after a week the spices move into the oil and the oil into the vegetables, and only then do the flavours come together.
Ingredients: 400 g cauliflower · 300 g carrots · 250 g celery · 2 pcs red peppers · 2 pcs onions · 3 pcs chillies
Before you start
The Chicago version
Chicago giardiniera is chopped finer, usually hot, and packed in a mix of oil and vinegar; it is the classic topping for Italian beef sandwiches. Use six chillies instead of three and dice the vegetables to 5 mm.
The oil sets in the fridge
That is normal and not a sign of spoilage. Take the jar out half an hour before serving and put it back in the fridge as soon as you have served some. Giardiniera keeps up to a month in the fridge, always with the vegetables below the liquid. Do not store it in the pantry: raw vegetables and garlic under oil, without pasteurising or tested acidity, are a botulism risk.
Vegetables beyond the list
Green beans, kohlrabi, young courgette and button mushrooms all work well. Avoid cucumber and tomato — too much water, and they soften whatever the brine does.