www.edibleaustin.com

by Luis Gutierrez

Photography by Jody Horton

by Jesse Griffiths

Photography by Jody Horton

Courtesy of Molly Wizenberg, adapted from The Zuni Café Cookbook

“There’s no denying that the recipe has a lot of steps, but each of them is easy, so don’t be tempted to cut corners,” says Molly. “The process of repeatedly blanching and cooling ensures that the pickled onions are softened but still delectably crisp, as a good pickle should be.

A few picky notes about ingredients and procedure:

• Use round or flat red onions that feel firm. Do not use torpedo onions, whose layers are too thin to make for a properly crunchy pickle.
• Use a pot made of stainless steel or another nonreactive material, such as anodized aluminum.
• Use wooden spoons. Aluminum would, warns The Zuni Café Cookbook–author Judy Rodgers, turn the onions an ‘unappetizing bluish mauve.’ Nobody wants to eat a pickle that’s the same color as your grandmother’s bath towels.
  

Serve them with a drizzle of good olive oil, which tames their vinegar tang with a lovely, rich finish. We like to eat them as an hors d’oeuvre, with fresh goat cheese or slices of sharp cheddar and crackers. They’re delicious with grilled meats—hamburgers, flank steak, chicken, etc.—and also, I’ll bet, with chicken liver paté.”
 

By Cecilia Nasti

In truth, there was no such thing as a standardized recipe for savory dishes in my family, and I follow that tradition to this day. Any and everything can go into this sauce—and has. Nevertheless, I have done my best to document the most no-frills version of our family’s tomato sauce, or as my father’s family called it, “gravy.”