But Chicago's giardiniera is not a mirror image of what you'll find in most of Italy. There, the vegetables are cut in bigger chunks and typically canned with vinegar instead of oil. (If you encounter giardiniera in other parts of America, it has far more in common with the Italian version.) "I've been looking through my books, and I don't see anything like the Chicago-style giardiniera in Italy," says Marchetti. "A lot of different regions make it, (so) you'd really have to travel all over (the country) before you can unequivocally say that there's nothing like it. But I personally haven't seen it." Johnson, however, calls making giardiniera with vinegar a "Northern Italian method" and says oil is used in Sicily.