In a Pickle

I adore Pickles!
Not dill, but instant gratification Bread and Butter pickles I think we call them.

I use a recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, the book I go to when I have my American cravings, it has it all!
Of course I tweek it….

Can never seem to follow a recipe as is!

Diva’s Summer Pickles

2 large cucumbers
1 red onion
1 yellow bell pepper ( or half a yellow and half a red)

2 soupspoons sea salt ( or kosher salt)

2 cups white wine vinegar
2 cups granulated sugar

Slice the veggies and sprinkle with salt, toss and let sit for three hours in a bowl.
The veggies with give off their water and this makes a crisp pickle.

After the three hours, drain the pickles and rinse off the salt, and place back into the bowl.

Bring the vinegar and sugar to a boil and pour over the pickles in the bowl.

When cook, place in clean jars.

I don’t process the jars as they are in vinegar and I eat them so quickly.
I keep them in the fridge.

If I am going to save them I do process them for keeping in the pantry for some summer… later this winter!

 

My favorite way to eat them is on top of sliced boiled potatoes, as a light potato salad. My hubbie has started adding other boiled veggies such as string beans, beets and some fresh tomatoes. FABULOUS.
He drizzles extra virgin oil on his too!
But for me the pickles and their vinegar are so refreshing in the summer!

You can reuse the vinegar for making more pickles too.. so keep on pickleing!

The original recipe spices the vinegar, so you can add cinnamon, star anice, cloves chili or black pepper corns.

I am waiting to see what my friend Giulia in Le Marche has to say. she is quite the cook and the Italians either love or hate sweet and savory! Guilia has a organic farm and B&B in one if Italy’s most beautiful areas. We have gone twice to Le Marche and I can’t wait to go back.. now that I have a friend!