La giardiniera in agrodolce piemontese

Now, you are about to get a recipe. It comes from a friend in Turin, Piedmont. He brought this lovely dish to a party, yes we love to bring food to parties! This is very common and very appreciated in Italy.

Friends get together for a party and each brings something to eat and drink. We put everything on the table, then sit down and enjoy the food together.

This recipe has, among other things, onions and extra virgin olive oil. 

My friend's name is Roger. He is Norwegian. He has a passion for Italy and obviously for the delicious Italian food. He told me he finds it exciting and beautiful to hear the passion Italians have for ingredients. I agree with him.

We Italians love food and first of all we love genuine ingredients.

Roger's passion for Italian food made him dive into a food hunt with the aim to buy ingredients of the best quality and make perfect Italian recipes.

Lucky for him his passion turned into a habit and now he is probably enjoying a home cooked Italian meal as you read this.  

This could be you. Turning your passion for Italy and food to an everyday habit. I asked Roger to tell me how he “hunts” for the perfect ingredients. This is his story and recipe!

He enjoys shopping in the local markets. Italy is full of street markets packed with local produce and goods.

Going to the street markets is an experience that allows you over time to become friends with the sellers and get not only the best deals but the highest quality of food. 

Sometimes you go to the market and you are not sure what you want to prepare.

You start wandering around from stall to stall and you begin to look at the goods and your senses are stimulated and you begin to shop imagining what you could make with all these yummy ingredients.

So what did Roger buy this time?

He started off with quality Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (olio EVO), Italian local onions and lots of fresh vegetables, all the ingredients to make the perfect “Giardiniera in Agrodolce.”

How to prepare La giardiniera in agrodolce alla piemontese

This traditional dish, which belongs to late summer, features local vegetables that are in season. Agrodolce in Italian means bittersweet, so it has a particular tang to it. 

The dish is perfect to serve as an antipasto, a starter. It's best with some bread or grissini, with cheese, and cured meats.

It also works well as a contorno, side dish, for fish.

This original Piedmontese recipe doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, what is absolutely important is the quality of the ingredients, as we say in Italian “pochi ma buoni”  (few but good).

Use local producers if you are in Italy, and use your senses when you go to the market. If you are in your country, you can look up local producers, go to the Farmer's Market and/or shop in organic food shops.

This is what you need:

• 500 grams of carrots
• 500 grams of cauliflower
• 500 grams of spring onions
• 500 grams of green beans
• 500 grams of celery
• 500 grams of paprika
• 1.5 kg tomatoes
• half an onion
• half a glass of vinegar
• a few bay leaves
• 1 glass extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons of sugar

This is what you have to do:

• Wash and cut all the vegetables into equal size cubes. 
• Wash and remove the skin from the tomatoes and leave them in boiling water for a couple of minutes.
• Place the onions in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and cook until it’s soft and brown. Add the bay leaves and the tomatoes and let it cook for half an hour.
• Then run the tomatoes through a kitchen grinder, and boil again.

Once the boiling starts again add the sugar to the tomato sauce and start adding the vegetables one by one. Since each vegetable has a different cooking time leave 8-9 minutes between adding each vegetable to the mix.

Follow this order:

• Celery, carrots, spring onions, green beans, cauliflower and peppers.
• Let another 8-9 minutes pass and if you want you can add the paprika here.
• Then add oil, vinegar and salt, mix well until you have a smooth batter.

Your giardiniera is ready. Pour it into a glass or jar, cool and serve.

Le melanzane grigliate sott’olio

Grilled, or fried eggplants are very easy to make.

Garlic and a bit of chili, fresh parsley, and quality extra virgin olive oil and you are basically done!

Trust me this will become your new favorite way to eat them!

You can eat them as they are or put them on a bruschetta. Or, serve the aubergines with chicken or maybe as a veggie side dish to your next grigliata barbecue (that’s what I do!). It's super tasty! Pro tip: Allowing the eggplant to settle in the fridge overnight or for a few days will make them even better!

This is what you need:

• 2 medium-sized eggplant
• Extra virgin olive oil for topping
• Sunflower oil or Extra virgin olive oil for frying
• Salt to taste
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Chili pepper to taste
• 2 sprigs of fresh parsley
• Coarse salt to taste

This is what you do:

• Wash and cut the eggplants. Cut them into large slices.  Add a little salt.
• Put them in a strainer so that the water can go down.
• Leave them under pressure overnight. Make sure to cover them so they do not turn brown.

Now you have a decision to make. Fried or grilled?

Always make sure that the eggplants are nice and dry. Use some kitchen paper to dry them before grilling them or frying them.

Water and hot oil do not get along, you risk hurting yourself if they are not fully dry and you add water to the hot oil! (please do not try it!)

If you choose to grill them I suggest you get a nice hot grill ready. I use a special pan that is reserved only to grill veggies directly on my kitchen stove.

It heats up quickly and the eggplants don’t get stuck on the grill lines.

Take your time to grill them!

It’s not super quick but when you notice the brown stripes you can turn the eggplant and grill the other side. 

If you choose to fry them then make sure that the pan is very hot before you add the eggplant slices to fry on a medium-low heat. 

When you see that they begin to slightly smoke, turn them over. Turn them often, until they are golden and tender.

Then put the eggplant slices on paper so that the oil gets off and they are dry and clean.

(I keep the paper bags that the farmers or local fruit shops “fruttivendoli” give us when we shop at the market for reuse… very useful also to peel peperoni… I might unveil the secret in another recipe).

Now these two steps could already be the end of it! Either way you could take the aubergines to the table and enjoy them by simply adding a bit of salt on both and olive oil on the grilled ones.

If you want to take it a step further then you will need to grab garlic, parsley and chili (if you like it spicy).

I find this mix perfect with the grilled eggplants. While you let the eggpplants rest, chop the garlic, parsley and chili. Mix them well together.

Put the finished eggplant in a bowl or tray, and cover with the mix that you have just prepared.

Drizzle olive oil on top - I use a lot so be generous.

Feel free to let this rest at room temperature before serving. When I prepare these for our summer grigliata I like to make them the day before and serve them at room temperature the next day.

If you don’t have time to prepare them in advance, let them rest for at least half an hour so that all the flavors are nicely mixed into the eggplant.

If you have leftovers just place them in a glass container and put it in the fridge to enjoy in the upcoming days. 

Want a tasty bruschetta?

If you like, you can also toast a few slices of bread in a frying pan with a little oil, and place the bread on a plate.

Place the eggplant slices on top (you can also make smaller pieces of the eggplant), and if necessary add a little more salt.

Serve with a fresh white wine. A Roero Arneis or why not a good Barbera wine from Piedmont.

Buon appetito! 

Melanzane in padella

This dish is perfect as a side dish (contorno) for chicken, other meat, or white fish. But, you can also eat it alone with bread as a lunch meal or a starter (antipasto).

You can also enjoy it the next day - cold! Then it is particularly good with a little lemon juice on top, perfect for a quick summer lunch.

When it's cold, it’s very similar to a  “caponata”. But, today we are going to call it “melanzane in padella”, eggplants in a pan.

You can have a bit of everything in this pan. You can be creative and use any veggie that you like.

For example you can use squash and sometimes tomato sauce instead of tomatoes. It’s truly an Italian big mix of vegetables where you can use what you have in the fridge! 

Ingredients: 

• 2 large eggplants
• 1 small red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• A little bit of parsley
• 2 tablespoons capers in water
• 10 black olives
• 5 large ripe tomatoes (take the best ones you can find!)
• Extra virgin olive oil (or olio EVO as it has become popular to call it in the Italian food recipes)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2-3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped or sliced almonds

Start by cleaning the eggplant:

Wash the eggplant and dry it nicely before cooking it.

I suggest buying the best eggplants from the local farmer, if you are buying them from the grocery store then some say that this next step is not necessary.

I have tested both with and without, and there was no bitter taste anyway.

Honestly if I’m lazy or running out of time I skip this step too and always get a delicious eggplant taste! 

But if you want to be sure that the eggplant is not bitter and it’s nice and dry also inside then you have to cut it into slices, put them in a colander and sprinkle salt over them.

The salt will react with the eggplant and the eggplant will release its water. 

You can also put something heavy on top to squeeze out extra water. After about 30 minutes, you can dry them with kitchen paper.

Now they are ready to be cooked. Once again… your choice to do this step!

Recipe for Melanzane in padella

• Cut the eggplant into large pieces or cubes.
• Peel and chop the onion, clean the garlic.
• Pick, clean and chop the parsley leaves.
• Rinse the capers and remove the olive stone (if present).
• Chop the tomatoes.
• Toast the almonds in the oven on a low heat until they are light brown.

Use a large pan, pour in a few spoonfuls of olive oil and set over medium heat.

Heat it nicely!

• Add the eggplant and sprinkle some dry oregano and some salt.
• Turn the aubergine so that the oil covers them.
• Turn up the heat a little and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Shake the pan every now and then and keep turning the aubergines.
• Depending on the size of the pan, you may need to cook the eggplant in several batches. The pieces should not be on top of each other.
• When the eggplants are nice and golden on each side, add the onion, garlic cloves and parsley.

Pro Tip for using garlic: You do not need to leave in the garlic and serve it with the eggplant. 

This is my personal choice and suggestion to get the best flavor out of the garlic: 

Whenever you have a recipe with garlic I suggest that you heat the oil up, you place the cloves in the oil and you basically fry them.

Once you see that the garlic is turning golden brown you can remove it from the oil. In this way the garlic has marinated in the oil.

The oil now takes on a garlic flavor that will be mild and will not prevail on the rest of the ingredients. (hint hint… this is what Italians really do! We are not too happy having a garlic breath!)

Of course this is your personal choice! If you like to eat the garlic then you can chop it up in small cubes and enjoy it as you like! 

• Let the onion, garlic and aubergine cook for a few more minutes and make sure not to burn anything!
• Then add capers and olives, and drizzle the vinegar over.

When the vinegar has evaporated, add the tomatoes. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes or until everything is tender.

Before serving, you can take out the garlic cloves (if you have left them in) and season with salt and pepper. You can also add some lemon for a fresh taste.

Drizzle over quality EVO oil, sprinkle over parsley and almonds. 

You can serve the dish hot or cold.