A couple of weeks ago, I was scouring the farmers market looking for inspiration. My spring canning class was coming up and I wanted to show the class something a little bit different in the pickle category – something that might inspire them to think of vegetable pickles “outside the jar”.  Something that would lend itself to use beyond a sandwich garnish.  My eyes landed on some beautiful, stripey, baby eggplant, and I knew immediately what I would do.

Two years ago, while participating in the Can Jam, I created a recipe for pickling spring onions and green garlic in balsamic vinegar and red wine that was so versatile, I used it as part of an antipasto plate, on cheese sandwiches, and even used the pickling liquid as a dressing for salads and caprese picks.  That recipe was even chosen to be included in Sarah B. Hood’s book, We Sure Can!

I thought that something similar would work for this beautiful baby eggplant, so I gave it a try.  And yes, it was worth it! The eggplant became tender and smooth – almost unctuous – contrasting in texture with the still firm onion, and the sweet/tart balsamic brine works beautifully as a dressing, alone or mixed with melted butter and/or olive oil.

One of my serving suggestions in class:  Melt 2 Tbs butter, add 2 Tbs olive oil, then add a one pint jar of this pickle, including the liquid.  Heat gently for just a couple of minutes and toss with hot pasta, long or short, of your choice. Instant supper! If you use short pasta, toss the hot pasta with olive oil and this pickle, and you can also serve it as a cold pasta salad – refreshing on a hot summer day. The possibilities go on and this recipe is easily doubled if your eggplant crop starts getting out of control, this summer.

Melanzana Balsamica
(Balsamic Eggplant)
(Makes about 3 pints)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ lbs  baby eggplant
• 1 large red spring onion
• 3 large cloves garlic
• 1 cup red wine (preferably Italian)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp canning salt (or 1 ½ tsp kosher salt)
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
• ¾ cup balsamic vinegar (5% acidity or higher)

Preparation:

Fill the canning pot with water and bring to a boil.  Place 3 pint canning jars and their lids into the pot and sterilize for 10 minutes.  While this is happening:

Wash and dry the eggplant, cut off the stem caps, and slice lengthwise into quarters.  If using a less-tender-skinned variety of eggplant, you may wish to peel it first.  Peel the onion, cut off the ends, cut in half lengthwise and cut into thick slices, also lengthwise.  Peel garlic cloves and smash with the broad part of the knife blade.

Put the vegetables into a medium non-reactive pot, add the wine, water, and salt, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat to medium-high, and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

Add the balsamic vinegar and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Canning:

Divide the hot vegetables equally between the 3 hot jars, pressing down firmly.  Add the hot liquid to each jar. Release trapped air bubbles with a chopstick or any thin, non-metallic tool (such as a plastic knife), allowing the liquid to fill the space.  Leave ½” headroom at the top of each jar, removing any excess liquid with a spoon.

Clean the jar rims well with a wet paper towel, place lids on the jars, screw on the rings finger-tight, and return to the canning pot. Bring back to a rolling boil and process for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and allow the jars to remain in the water for an additional 5 minutes before removing them to a covered surface to cool. Listen for the ping!

Allow to meld for a minimum 1 ½ – 2 weeks before using.  Of course, it gets better with age.

Yes, indeedy! Alliums. According to Webster’s: any of a large genus (Allium) of bulbous herbs of the lily family including the onion, garlic, chive, leek, and shallot. Another low-acid food was assigned to us for this month’s Tigress’ Can Jam. But I love every member of this family, so I was pretty excited. And had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

And then I went to the local farmers’ market and found

Colorful local spring onions, green garlic, and its big brothers! Who knew you could grow garlic in South Florida? In the same trip, I also scored some incredible balsamic vinegar and fig balsamic. Now what?

I read a lot of recipes, got my proportions straight, and created:

Pickled Onions & Green Garlic al Balsamico

You know I made that up, right?

Ingredients:

6 spring onions + 4 green garlics, washed well & sliced thinly (white & light green parts only)
(totaling about 5 cups)

1 cup red wine (I used a Montepulciano)

1 cup water

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup good balsamic vinegar

Method:

Put the onions and green garlic in a 4 quart saucepan with the red wine, water and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower to a simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables soften slightly. Add the balsamic vinegar and return to a simmer for another 5 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare 2 pint jars and their lids for boiling water canning and get your canning pot up to a boil.

Divide the hot, cooked vegetables between the two prepared jars and fill with the hot balsamic/wine liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space. You might have some liquid left over.

Clean the rims of the jars with a wet cloth or paper towel, put lids on the jars, finger-tighten the lid rings and process in boiling water for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes before removing the jars to cool.

Allow to sit for at least a week before eating, and of course, refrigerate after opening.

I made 2 batches of this – one with the regular aged balsamic vinegar, and the other with the fig balsamic. We served the fig balsamic version with other pickled vegetables (including last month’s Baby Carrots in Honey, Vinegar & Dill) as part of the antipasto at my mother’s birthday party, last weekend, and it was simply delish with my homemade Italian bread & parmesan breadsticks. It goes well as a pickle side dish for chicken, too.

The pickling liquid was so good, I drizzled some of it over the Mini-Caprese Picks I made for the party, instead of the balsamic dressing I usually use. The crowd went wild (insert roaring stadium noise in the background, here)!

For the Mini-Caprese Picks, just skewer a grape tomato, a folded basil leaf and a cherry-sized mozzarella ball onto plastic party picks or even wooden toothpicks (which I did when I ran out of the plastic ones!). Much easier to handle in a party situation than the traditional caprese salad. Not to mention adorable!

Oh, and the tops of the green garlic? They’re perfectly edible and pack a pretty good garlic punch, too. For breakfast one morning, I quartered some leftover boiled new red potatoes, and rough chopped a medium onion and sauteed them in a large pan with a little olive oil, stirred in 4 beaten eggs and then about 3 tablespoons of the chopped green tops of the green garlic. Really tasty “Farmer’s Scramble”!

This one was fun and I can’t wait to see what everyone else in “The Jam” cooked up!

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