• Yield: Makes 1 1/2 quarts

  • Time: 10 minutes prep, 1 hour 30 minutes cooking, 1 hour 40 minutes total


Pickled grapes look a lot like olives, and we use them a lot like olives, too, tossing them in cold salads or just serving them in a ramekin as a cocktail nibble, with toothpicks (no dish for pits required!). Their playful sweetsour flavor, their crispness, and their gentle chile heat make them super-addictive.


Ingredients

  • 6 cups stemmed mixed red and green seedless grapes (about 2 pounds)

  • 2 cups distilled white vinegar or white wine vinegar

  • 2 tablespoons kosher salt

  • 2 teaspoons sugar

  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

  • Leaves from 1 four-inch sprig rosemary

  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried red chile flakes

Instructions

 

Pack the grapes into 3 pint-size glass containers with lids. Pour the vinegar and 1 cup water into a saucepan, set it over medium-high heat, and add the salt, sugar, garlic, rosemary, and chile flakes. When the mixture starts to simmer, remove the pan from the heat and divide the hot brine among the pints of grapes. Cover loosely and let cool to room temperature. Cover tightly and chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour before serving. The pickles will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.


Reprinted from The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor by Matt and Ted Lee. Copyright © 2009 Published by Clarkson Potter

Ted Lee
Ted Lee is co-founder of "The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue," a mail-order catalog for southern pantry staples. He is also a food and travel journalist whose work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, GQ, The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living. He is co-author of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and Simple Fresh Southern.
Matt Lee
Matt Lee is co-founder of "The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue," a mail-order catalog for southern pantry staples. He is also a food and travel journalist whose work has appeared in Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, GQ, The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living. He is co-author of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and Simple Fresh Southern.