A weeknight pasta that makes the most of eggplant, and how to make a half-sour pickle at home! Our Best Home Cooking Bites of the Week

Food Friends: Home Cooking Made Easy

Have you ever wanted to make a deli-style pickle at home, but are too intimidated to try? 

In this bite-sized episode, we share delicious moments about the best things we ate this week to inspire each other – and you!

By the end of this episode, you’ll learn how easy it is to turn a bevy of cucumbers + salt into homemade pickles – with no fancy equipment or complicated ingredients required! You’ll also discover a vegetarian Italian pasta dish that uses up all the gorgeous eggplant at the farmers’ market right now. 

Tune in for a quick dose of home cooking inspiration!

***

Links:

One of our favorite recipes for lacto-fermented (sour) pickles is from The Gefilteria. They use 2 Tablespoons of kosher salt to 4 cups of water. For half-sour pickles, ferment for a shorter amount of time. 

A more exact and very helpful guide to making lacto-fermented pickles at home from Farmhouse on Boone!

A simple guide to lacto-fermentation from Noma

Pasta alla Norma by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for Serious Eats, similar to how Kari made hers, and David Lebovitz’s Pasta alla Norma that uses roasted eggplant  

***

Got a cooking question? Leave us a message on our hotline at: 323-452-9084

We love hearing from you — follow us on Instagram @foodfriendspod, or drop us a line at foodfriendspod@gmail.com!

For more recipes and cooking inspiration, sign up for our Substack here. You can also now find us on YouTube. 

Book a farmers’ market tour with Sonya in Portland, OR!

More description

Have you ever wanted to make a deli-style pickle at home, but are too intimidated to try? 

In this bite-sized episode, we share delicious moments about the best things we ate this week to inspire each other – and you!

By the end of this episode, you’ll learn how easy it is to turn a bevy of cucumbers + salt into homemade pickles – with no fancy equipment or complicated ingredients required! You’ll also discover a vegetarian Italian pasta dish that uses up all the gorgeous eggplant at the farmers’ market right now. 

Tune in for a quick dose of home cooking inspiration!

***

Links:

One of our favorite recipes for lacto-fermented (sour) pickles is from The Gefilteria. They use 2 Tablespoons of kosher salt to 4 cups of water. For half-sour pickles, ferment for a shorter amount of time. 

A more exact and very helpful guide to making lacto-fermented pickles at home from Farmhouse on Boone!

A simple guide to lacto-fermentation from Noma

Pasta alla Norma by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for Serious Eats, similar to how Kari made hers, and David Lebovitz’s Pasta alla Norma that uses roasted eggplant  

***

Got a cooking question? Leave us a message on our hotline at: 323-452-9084

We love hearing from you — follow us on Instagram @foodfriendspod, or drop us a line at foodfriendspod@gmail.com!

For more recipes and cooking inspiration, sign up for our Substack here. You can also now find us on YouTube. 

Book a farmers’ market tour with Sonya in Portland, OR!

2025-08-21 16 min
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