Sweet & Spicy Zucchini Relish

 I kept the name of this recipe because most people will be familiar with zucchini as the main ingredient. We didn't grow traditional zucchini this year or use it in this relish, we grew trombonchino!! 

Meet trombonchino!

Trombonchino is an Italian zuchini variety that grows a super long seedless fruit with a smaller bulbus end that contains seeds. I love this variety. It grows prolificly on our garden trellises all summer and into the fall. I find it is heartier and less prone to diseases than the traditional zucchini. It is all the best parts of the zucchini without the tendancy to get hard skin and hard seeds in a day if you forget to pick it. If you leave them on the vine for a very long time, they can get brown skinned and hard like a butternut squash, but that takes a lot more waiting than we can handle. Like I already said, it is super prolific so we have come up with a TON of ways to prepare it. We love it grilled, it does great in veggie lasagna, sauces, stir fries, and bakes. Basically, any way that you would use zucchini, you can use trombonchino. That being said, it makes a great sweet and spicy relish. You can use zucchini...if you want, but a trombonchino is pretty much always better.

Sweet & Spicy Trombonchino Relish

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds trombonchino squash

3 purple onions

2 yellow bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

3 jalapeno peppers

3 tbsp salt

6 cups apple cider vinegar

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground mustard

1 sachets of pickling spice (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions:

1. Using a food processor or grater finely chop the zucchini, onions, and peppers. Mix them together in a larg bowl and toss with 3 tablsepoons of salt. Let the veggie mixture sit while you prepare the brine. 

2. In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. For the pickling spice, you want the falvor, but you don't want the seeds and bay leaf pieces in your relish. You can use a sachet bag, or a tea strainer to infuse the flavors. I have a mana-tea, which floated hapily in the brine to infuse our relish. 😄

3. Bring the brine to a boil, then add the veggies. Bring the whole mixture back up to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 45 minutes to cook the veggies. After 45 minutes, check the consistency. Continue to reduce until the relish has the solid/liquid ratio that you desire. 

One big quart for the refrigerator and a small jar that wasn't quite full. the small jar was eaten on the firsd day. 

4. At this point you can put your relish into cans and put them in the refrigerator to make refrigerator relish, or you can hot water process them. This relish processes for 15 minutes.  For more information on hot water bath canning check HERE. The recipe makes about 20 cups of relish.