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pickled pepper brine
My runaway pepper plants have forced me to become a semi-pro (or to at least learn from past mistakes!).
pickled pepper brine
It's important to distinguish between methods before talking about brine ingredients. There's actual brining -- where peppers sit in a brine of salt and water, at room temperature, until lactic fermentation takes place and the peppers become sour. This is the traditional way of making pepperoncinis, by the way.
There's also quick pickling, using a "brine" that contains vinegar. This is probably the version you're talking about.
And now that we have terminology straight, the brine you'll use for quick pickling depends on the type if pepper you're pickling. For a sweeter pepper (e.g., banana peppers), the brine often calls for sugar. Usually a ratio of 3 parts vinegar to 1 part sugar, with a dash of salt thrown in. (For me, about 1/2 teaspoon of salt per cup of vinegar.)
If you're pickling hot peppers (jalapenos, et al), there generally is no sugar in the brine -- just salt. Usually about 1 teaspoon per pint of peppers. Some people dilute the vinegar with some water because they find the straight vinegar to be too harsh. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is bring your brine to a boil and taste it. Is this what you want to be eating and how you want your peppers to taste? If so, pour the hot brine over your peppers. If not, adjust the seasoning or acidity and bring to a boil again.
If you're processing your peppers for storage -- in other words, canning them rather than storing them in the fridge -- you must have at least a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water. If you use any more water than that, you'll dilute the vinegar so that the processed produce is no longer safe for long-term storage.
Sicilian Slices at Boston’s Galleria Umberto
About 10 years ago, I worked just down Hanover Street from this place. We were a poor, threadbare nonprofit organization run by poor, threadbare 20-somethings. Galleria Umberto was a 3-day-a-week lunch stop for most of us because it was close, quick, and cheap.
Never knew its name, though. We always referred to that great little hole in the wall as Greasy Pizza. *That* was its (affectionate) name to us.
A slice of cheese pizza on a paper plate, along with a bottled lime rickey, would run under $3, if I remember correctly. You had to hurry back down the street to the office, though, because if you didn't, the paper plate would get positively soaked and would disintegrate from all the lovely, lovely pizza grease, and your precious slice would end up on the Hanover Street sidewalk with so much other Freedom Trail detritus.
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I don't think that recipe would be safe for canning. There are very few tested and proven canning recipes that feature oil as an ingredient. It's more conducive to harmful bacteria than straight-up vinegar. It would be much safer to make these in smaller batches and store them in the fridge.