Give Your Favorite Jar Of Pickles This Pasta-Inspired Flavor Upgrade

Jarred pickles arrive with some flavorings in the brine, but they're also a perfect vehicle for flavor infusion. One of the best ways to do this is to take some pasta inspiration and stir a little pesto into your jar of pickles before letting the flavors merge overnight. Think of it like infusing a spirit with fruit or spices — dump and reserve a little juice from your jar, stir in your pesto, and re-add the juice. All that's left is to wait, shaking the jar every now and then to make sure everything's mingling properly.

Using both store-bought jarred pickles and store-bought jarred pesto makes this super simple. The only thing to consider here is that both pre-made foods often include high amounts of sodium, and the resulting pesto pickles might have an overly salty flavor. Making either or both halves of the pair from scratch allows you to control the resulting saltiness and achieve a brighter, fresher flavor.

These infused pickles make a great topping or addition to innumerable dishes — if you could imagine putting both pesto and pickles on or in it, it'll probably work. Sandwiches with cold cuts and cheese are ideal candidates, as are burgers and hot dogs.

If you want to start getting creative, return to this pair's inspiration and use the pickles to add crunch and zing to pasta salad. Or, you could reverse this hack and turn your pesto pickles into a pickle pesto by grinding them up with the rest of your fresh pesto ingredients. The sauce will have a strong, tangy flavor but could be perfect as a spread on a charcuterie board or in a creamy pasta dish.

Experiment with flavors by varying the type of pickle you use. The base heat, sourness, and sweetness of the pickles will be a prominent flavor in the final mix, so choose accordingly. Almost anything can work, but you might want to avoid already-flavored pickles to keep from masking pesto's vibrant notes.

You can also switch up the base herb in your pesto. A parsley pesto is a common swap and offers a more vegetal, less-sweet taste. Split the difference with a three-herb pesto that uses parsley, dill, and basil, and amplifies dill pickles' characteristic flavor. To take your pesto pickles around the world, opt for a cilantro pesto and make the perfect garnish for tacos or an upgraded ramen bowl.