Giardiniera:

[Darienne]

Life took a whole new twist when a friend gave me a bottle of marinated eggplant. I made it for us and we both eat it with salads now.

I found a recipe for Giardiniera online hereand thought I would try it although it sounds more pickley than just marinated.

I'm wondering if this is a typical recipe for this dish or if others have different recipes.

Italian cooking is almost a complete unknown to me. Thanks.

[nakji]

Was the jar you got just eggplant, or a mix of marinated vegetables?

I can recommend highly Marcella Hazan's recipe for pickled eggplants from her book, Marcella's Italian Kitchen.

In fact, if you're interested in learning more about cooking Italian dishes, I found her books a very helpful introduction.

[Darienne]

Thank you for your reply.

The jar was only eggplant, and not pickled. I realize I forgot to specify that I didn't want pickled...I don't really like pickles...but marinated, with a 'softer' taste.

I tried Marcella Hazen's recipe, but settled on another one which I liked much better...less 'pickled'. Right. Found the recipe; lost the attribution. Actually, I combine what I like best out of three recipes for my eggplant.

My prime focus has to be less Italian per se right now, than basically salad oriented. We eat salad every second night for supper and my salad repertoire has expanded greatly this summer, particularly thanks to a blog called What would Cathy Eat www.whatwouldcathyeat.com and contributions in the salad threads by other eG'ers.

So I was looking for a marinated mixed salad ingredient Giardiniera I guess. Took me a while to figure that one out. Thanks for helping.

ps. Can't seem to get the URL in correctly this morning...

Edited September 5, 2010 by Darienne (log)