A taste of home: Giardiniera, so dear to Chicagoans, is easy to make and can for future feasts

I was born and raised on the northwest side of Chicago. And while I have lived in the suburbs for the majority of my life, I still consider myself a Chicagoan. This is especially true when it comes to food; I like a good hot dog complete with sport peppers, but never ketchup (no offense to those of you who do). I refer to carbonated beverages as pop, not soda, and top my Italian beef sandwiches with lots of giardiniera.

Chicago is a city known for its food. Of course, deep-dish pizza and Chicago-style hot dogs are usually at the top of the list of foods hailing from the area, but did you know the first brownie is credited to the kitchens of the Palmer House Hotel?

Chicago has a long food history that is often traced to the city’s many ethnic neighborhoods. I still drive into “the old neighborhood,” rich with Italian and Polish influences, to visit some of my favorite family-owned stores and restaurants. These are typically small businesses that sell unique food, some homemade, and all very nostalgic to me.

One of these small stores is Tony’s Italian Deli & Subs on Northwest Highway in Edison Park. While their name features their subs, it is the other products they carry that entice me to make the drive, complete with a cooler in my car to carry my precious purchases home with me.

When you walk into the store, you are greeted with a wonderful smell and an entire shelf of their signature giardiniera. But don’t stop there. As you venture further into the store, you will see multiple brands of olive oil in containers ranging from small bottles to large tins, dried pasta in every shape you can imagine, and, if you’re lucky, an entire wheel of Parmesan cheese atop a butcher block counter where they regularly carve wedges for patrons. Add to this their homemade Italian sausage, sauces, olive salad and multiple housemade Italian specialties, and if you weren’t hungry when you entered, you will be by the time you leave.

Tony’s is just one store among many. As mentioned in one of my favorite Chicago foodie reference books, “A Cook’s Guide to Chicago,”: “Visiting ethnic markets can quickly become habit forming. They’re so much juicier than a regulation American supermarket with all its frozen dinners and shrink-wrap.”

Like Tony’s, many Italian stores and eateries carry their version of giardiniera, which makes perfect sense as giardiniera was brought to Chicago by people relocating from Italy in the mid-19th century. My research suggests the word “giardiniera” comes from the Italian word “giardino,” which means garden. According to TheMediterraneanDish.com, “Giardiniera typically contains a mix of vegetables that you might find in an Italian garden: carrots, cauliflower, celery, green beans, peppers and onions. At the end of the harvest season, it was traditional to preserve these vegetables so that they could be enjoyed during the winter months.”

Pronounced jar-din-AIR-ah in most places, in Chicago, we typically drop the last syllable and say jar-din-AIR. But the differences don’t end there. Most recipes from outside the Chicago area use vinegar primarily in their pickling brine, but in the Chicago version, oil is added for additional flavor.

There are many recipes out there for Chicago-style giardiniera. The one I like is from The Chopping Block’s blog and contains chopped serrano, jalapeño, red bell peppers, onion, carrots, celery, cauliflower, green olives and spices. With this in mind, feel free to add something you’ve seen in another recipe, as very few giardiniera contain the same combination of vegetables. You can find The Chopping Block recipe at thechoppingblock.com/blog/the-recipe-for-real-chicago-style-giardiniera.

I will warn you: This requires a lot of chopping, so this is the time to invite your giardiniera-loving friends to help. Be sure to have some disposable gloves on hand for those people chopping the peppers. Most of the chopping occurs on the first day of preparation before salt is added to the veggie mixture, which is then allowed to sit overnight. This helps remove any excess moisture and helps vegetables remain crisp.

On day two, the remaining ingredients are added, and if desired, the mixture is placed into sterilized jars for canning. You will need to resist the temptation to eat it right away, as it takes about a week for the flavors to meld. It is even better after three weeks. Properly sealed jars will stay on your pantry shelf for about a year. If you’d rather not go through the canning process, the mixture will also keep in your refrigerator for several weeks.

I have two heat-loving sons who ate this almost as fast as I opened a jar. They like it on pizza, eggs, salads and, of course, beef sandwiches. As a bonus, after the vegetables have all been eaten, I have used the remaining brine as a chicken marinade and in homemade salad dressing.

So, once your giardiniera is ready to eat, don’t forget to give some to those who helped you chop. If they are anything like my family, they will love it.

• Penny Kazmier, a wife and mother of four from South Barrington, won the 2011 Daily Herald Cook of the Week Challenge. Contact Penny at DhCulinaryAdventures@gmail.com.

Chicago-Style Giardiniera

2 pounds ¼-inch sliced serrano peppers*

1 pound seeded and diced red bell pepper

1 pound of cauliflower, chopped into small pieces

½ pound peeled and diced white onion

½ pound peeled and diced carrots

½ pound thinly sliced celery

1 cup of salt

12 — 24 ounces sliced pimento stuffed green olives, or whole if small, reserve olive liquid

1 cup olive liquid

4 tablespoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons fresh cracked black pepper

3 tablespoons dried oregano

5 cups white wine vinegar

3½ cups canola or grapeseed oil

Canning jars with tops and lids

Day 1:

Place the peppers, carrots, cauliflower, onion and celery into a stainless steel or glass bowl, toss with salt, cover and place in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. (This salting will help remove moisture from the vegetables and encourage crispness.)

Day 2:

Place prewashed jars on a sheet pan and into a 275-degree oven for 20 minutes. They can remain there until you are ready to fill them.

Fill stockpot or canning pot ¾ of the way up with water and heat over a high heat until boiling.

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add new canning lids and rings to sterilize where they should remain until you are placing them on the jars.

Remove the pepper mixture from the refrigerator, drain the excess liquid and discard the liquid.

Combine remaining ingredients with the pepper mixture.

When the water is boiling, remove the jars from the oven (be careful, they are hot) and fill the jars to right below the threads for the lid. Run a knife around the inside of the jar a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Do this gently as to not create more air bubbles. Carefully wipe the rim of the jar with a paper towel that has been moistened with a mixture of 50/50 vinegar and water to clean and remove any oil. This is important to ensure jars and lids seal properly.

Place lids on jars as you fill them, secure gently with ring (it shouldn’t be too tight, only tighten until you begin to feel resistance) and carefully place in boiling water for 20 minutes.

Carefully remove jars from boiling water and place back onto the dishtowel-lined sheet pan; set aside to cool, being careful to resist the temptation to push the center of the lids, as they need to seal themselves to ensure a proper seal. You should hear popping after some time; that is the sound of the jars sealing. After all the jars are completely cooled check to make sure they are all sealed. You will know they are sealed when you push down on the lid and it doesn’t bounce back. If some jars don’t seal just put them in the fridge and use first. They are fine to use after letting sit for one week, but three weeks is best. The rest can go on the shelf for a year if they last that long.

* The heat in peppers is measured in units using the Scoville Scale. Serrano peppers register from 10,000 units to 25,000 units, making them spicier than the 2,500-unit to 5,000-unit jalapeño. This recipe does make a spicy giardiniera, so if you’d like to cut back on the heat, consider using a combination of the two peppers or all jalapeños.

Yields approximately 10 pints

— Adapted from The Chopping Block blog