Pickles are one of my absolute favorite foods. Funny, because I hate cucumbers. I was the only one in my family that liked pickles. Whenever we went to McDonalds, before the chicken mcnugget days, I got all my brothers’ pickles. I hated Burger King because they could order their burgers “ketchup only” … I was in heaven in Russia any time I could get pickles, and Russians love their pickles! However, in Italy I don’t see pickles too often.
Just to torture me, I’m sure, this week two different friends wrote about their pickle-making adventures, so I decided I had to try it. Jenn said she made bread and butter pickles with zucchini… perfect for me, plenty of that here, and one of my most favorite kinds of pickles. Mark made the famous “half-sour” pickles… those super crunchy fresh tasting pickles that I crave and have to go to Saul’s deli or special russian stores to find in the US…
For the sweet pickles:
Sliced 3 zucchini + two small red onions including the green tops;
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layered with salt and covered with ice; let sit covered for a few hours.
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Made a brine of 1/2 c sugar, 2 cups white wine vinegar, 1/2 c red wine vinegar, 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, coriander, whole pepper corns, dried ginger & fresh basil — this smelled amazingly good!
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Boiled the vegetables in the brine, placed it all into four jelly jars and processed for several minutes…
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While cooling the seals all popped down and they look pretty good so far! We’ll see in a couple weeks.
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For the sour pickles:
Made a brine of 1/2 c salt and 2 cups water; 3 cucumbers each cut in half, packed into the brine jar with fresh rosemary, grape leaves and garlic.
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Fortunately I only have to wait a few day for these…
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