My Homemade Italian Giardiniera Will Be the Star of Every Cookout (1000x Better Than Jarred!)

Visit any Italian market and, tucked among the olives, capers, and roasted red peppers, you’ll find giardiniera. To Italians, giardiniera (pronounced jar-din-AIR-ah) is a way of saying pickled vegetables. The condiment is also known as verdure sott’aceto, which translates to “vegetables under vinegar.” The vegetables are usually eaten with salads or as an antipasto, often accompanied by cheeses or cured meats, but it’s also delicious stuffed into an Italian beef sandwich.

Like many Italian dishes, there’s a traditional and an Italian-American version of giardiniera. The latter is referred to as “Chicago-style.” Italian-style giardiniera includes cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, celery, and sometimes gherkins, and the vegetables are marinated in olive oil, red or white wine vinegar, herbs, and spices. Chicago-style giardiniera adds hot peppers to the mix, and the marinade contains little or no vinegar. This recipe falls squarely in the middle of these two iterations: It’s got lots of vinegary tang, plus the added heat of pepperoncinis.