Giardiniera- Italian Pickled Vegetables

This is a spicy pickled vegetable that is excellent on an Italian Beef sandwich. It is great on sausages or a big New Orleans style Muffaletta or quite frankly on any mixed Deli sandwiches. It has lots of vegetables and spicy peppers and I will show you how to use it on a Chicago Style Italian Beef sandwich in tomorrow's post. You can buy it in the store but, it is so easy and so much better to make your own.

Come on!!... Try it.

You will need:

• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 sweet yellow pepper
• 1 carrot
• 1 small onion
• 2 spring onions/scallions
• 3/4 cup small cauliflower pieces
• 1 celery stalk
• 2-3 hot peppers (your choice of variety can be red medium, Serrano, or jalapeno etc..)
• 1/2 kosher salt and 2 cups cold water

all these vegetables can be cut to the size you prefer. I prefer to make my dice on the small size since I mainly use this on sandwiches and I don't want the vegetables too large.

• 1 tsp dry oregano
• 2-3 garlic cloves chopped fine
• 1/4 cup red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil (or more if you want)
• 1/2 cup chopped olives (if you want)
• 1/2 cup chopped hot pickled peppers (if you want)
• 1/2 tsp ref pepper flakes (if you want)
• pepper to taste

Step 1: in a large bowl add salt and water and stir to make sure salt dissolves.

Step 2: chop all your fresh vegetables and add to the water and leave overnight to soak or at least 4-8 hours.

 Step 3: strain the liquid and rinse all the vegetables to make sure salt is removed.

Step 4: return to the bowl and add olive oil, vinegar, dry oregano, chopped garlic, chili flakes. Stir to combine

You can also add olives or other pickled peppers etc... make your own recipe.

Step 5 : add to a glass jar that can be sealed and cover with more olive oil. It can be stored in your fridge for weeks and the oil can be used on pastas or to flavour salads.

Always keep a small jar on hand for your next great sandwich.