Pickling craze

Oh, the summer heat!

Summer for me has always been about the smells of preserves and pickles being made – so many shelves of jams, chutneys, pickles, sauces and preserves in that musty basement at my parents’ Italian country house!

Unfortunately I don’t have my own vegetable patch and I have to rely on the local farmers, but this year my new friend “Joe the farmer” (despite his name vaguely reminding me of unpleasant political moments in the recent history of this country) has provided me with some delicious veggies and I decided to take advantage of them…

I decided to use my very favorite pickling brine – as a child I used to go crazy for the stuff! This recipe is originally meant for pickled zucchini, cut in little wheels and briefly cooked in the pickling juice; I had made a tiny batch earlier this summer and it was SO good that we already ate both little jars that came from the two zucchini my neighbor gave us from their garden. And as strange as it seems I have dealt with zucchini in all different ways this summer, but I have not yet repeated the pickling endeavor with them… I guess I was too much taken with experimenting different vegetables with the same recipes, but I’ll be making a new zucchini batch very soon!

I really love this recipe because it’s not too vinegar-y; don’t get me wrong, I ADORE vinegar, but sometimes pickles can be a little too much… I guess it’s because, since I love them so much I cannot quite eat as many if they’re too harsh !

Anyways, here’s the magic potion:

• 1 part oil (I use either olive oil or grapeseed oil, but if you want to be hard-core and use extra virgin you can and it will have much more olive flavor)
• 3 part vinegar (classic white pickling vinegar is just fine)
• Lots of rosemary
• 1 onion sliced really thin
• A few garlic cloves (except if you’re pickling garlic, of course)
• A tablespoon of black peppercorns, salt and a few basil leaves.

Bring this to a boil, and then add your vegetable of choice, chopped into not too small bite-size pieces. Depending on the vegetable (and how soft you like your pickle) you can leave this on the heat for a few minutes, but be careful not to overcook it – remember, the pickle will cook during the sterilization process, too! For example, I kept little baby carrots cooking for three minutes, but took the garlic off the heat right away .

According to the original recipe it’s not necessary to sterilize (it’s obviously a high acid food), and it certainly isn’t if you’re planning to eat this within a few days (in which case you should keep the pickles in an airtight container in the refrigerator), but I like to be safe and I think that if you’re planning to eat these throughout the winter it’s better to make vacuum in the jars to avoid any bacteria and harmful stuff happening. Put your pickles in cleaned canning jars (either run them in the dishwasher’s hot cycle or put them in a pot with water and bring to a boil for 3 to 5 minutes, then drain completely before canning), close the jars and then sterilize them for 20 minutes from the boil, keeping the water temperature around 195 degrees Farenheit (90 Celsius). Let them cool undisturbed and you’ll hear the pop of the vacuum…

As I said the pickles are ready to eat right away, but I find it best to let flavors mingle for about a month before attacking the pantry – it might be hard to do, but consider the bounty of summerproduce that you can enjoy fresh while keeping busy at pickling more and different vegetables…

so far I have tried: baby carrots, cauliflower, garlic, zucchini, peppers and yellow summer squash. I am considering how to expand the “spectrum of the pickles” – pickled parsnips, anyone? Please be sure to leave your suggestions and ideas!!