Giardiniera

This giardiniera recipe is spicy but not super-hot. I'd list it as between mild and medium heat. Add more pickled jalapenos (and the pickling liquid) or leave them out entirely to adjust the heat level for your sandwiching experiences.
YIELD
Between 2 and 3 pint jars
PREP TIME
schedule 10 minutes
COOK TIME
schedule 40 minutes
TOTAL TIME
schedule 50 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 34 cups white wine vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 12 head of cauliflower
  • 3 peeled carrots
  • 2 stalks of celery
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 15 green olives with pimentos
  • 10 to 15 pickled pepperoncinis
  • 5 or more slices of pickled jalapeno (leave this out entirely for medium heat)
  • 12 cup olive oil (plus more to fill the jars)
  • 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano

Related blog post: The Italian job

Directions:

Bring your white wine vinegar and water up to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add your kosher salt, sugar, and 3 bay leaves. 

While waiting for your vinegar/water to reach boiling, cut your half head of cauliflower into small bite-sized pieces, discarding most of the stalks. Peel and chop carrots into small-sized pieces. 

Add both the cauliflower and carrots to the boiling liquid and reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes. 

While simmering, chop celery and red bell pepper into similarly sized pieces as the cauliflower and carrots. 

After 3 minutes, add celery and red bell pepper and simmer for another 2 minutes. 

Remove the pot from the heat. Fish out and remove all three bay leaves.

Chop your green olives, pepperoncinis, and pickled jalapeno (if using) into small bite-sized pieces and add all three vegetables to the now cooling pot with the cauliflower, carrots, celery, and red pepper. 

In a large mixing bowl, pour 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, and 1 teaspoon dried oregano. This is your marinade for the giardiniera. Whisk to combine. 

Using a colander or strainer, drain the vegetables. Add drained vegetables into the marinade and stir to combine. 

Let vegetables marinate tossing occasionally until they are cooled. This may take 20 or 30 minutes. 

Add cooled vegetables and marinade to your containers (I use pint-sized Ball/Mason jars). Since I usually have multiple jars to fill. I make sure to attempt to get an equal amount of marinade in each container. If your marinade only comes up about a third of the jar, you should add a bit more olive oil to each jar. You want the oil/marinade to be at least three-quarters of the way up to the level of the vegetables. 

Refrigerate and enjoy after at least one day in the marinade. You should stir the giardiniera before serving to make sure each spoonful is coated again in the marinade. 

Have you made this recipe? Tag @beerinator and let him know!


Tags:

Advertisement


One response to “Giardiniera”

  1. Jonathan, your Giardiniera recipe is perfect! The fennel makes it. Love your beef and sub-roll recipe with the photos, esp. Lily eyeing the bread. I don’t know how you get the beef so thin with a just a knife. I just made my beef recipe two nights ago and I’m going to try your beef tomorrow. I think your recipe might beat mine. If my hubby and kid love it I’m going to have to pass it off as my own and burn my family recipe… shh!!!! Don’t tell 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.