Fermented! Italian la giardiniera.

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- Melanzane a scapece (Marinated Eggplant) | Memorie di Angelina

- Homemade Giardiniera | Memorie di Angelina
Giardiniera is an Italian relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil.
The Italian version includes bell peppers, celery, carrots, cauliflower and gherkins.


- Rachel Roddy’s recipe for pickled garden vegetables | Food | The Guardian
Italian la giardiniera, which simply means a preserved mix of seasonal garden vegetables.
This March batch included carrot, turnip, red cabbage, beetroot (leaving no doubt about colour – soft pink or absolute purple depending on proportions) fennel and red onion.
This method makes a pleasing, entry-level pickle, with both crunch and jolt, its flavour sour and assertive enough to fill your mouth in a single bite but just sweet enough not to be abrasive.
The pickle equivalent of easy-listening maybe (serious fermenters and pickle aficionados may like to stop reading now).

As a guide, 1kg of vegetables, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces, needs 750ml pickling liquid made by mixing 550ml white wine vinegar with 200ml water in a pan, then adding a heaped tablespoon each of fine salt and sugar, and whatever you fancy of the following: a crushed red chilli, peeled or crushed garlic, bay, dill, peppercorns, juniper berries or coriander seeds.
Then heat it slowly.
Once at boiling point, add all the vegetables, stir, cover the pan and leave on the heat for one minute.

And that is pretty much it.
Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the bottom of each of two large, sterilised jars (wash them in boiling water and dry in a low oven).
Now use a slotted spoon to lift the vegetables into the jars, cover with pickling liquid, share out the spices and screw on the lids.
If you can, wait a week, although they’re good to eat the next day.
I keep my pickles in the fridge for up to two months.
They taste better when cold anyway: brighter somehow, the sweet and sour and taste even more pronounced – especially next to a cheese sandwich, a slice of savoury pie or boiled meat, or simply savoured straight from the jar against a kitchen counter.

- Melanzane a scapece (Marinated Eggplant) | Memorie di Angelina