I like all of the recipe suggestions so far (although I omit clove, or use it very sparingly, just from taste).
Not sure how it can factor for you, but I first made Giardiniera when I found myself with an absurdly large number of serrano chiles from my garden. A matter of interest for food evolution emerged for me as I researched and lived this out: chile peppers ripen in late summer, whereas cauliflower, another must-have in Giardiniera, ripens around late-September/October. The classic preparation is to brine/pickle the chiles for 6-8 weeks. So the end of the chile treatment coincides with the harvest time for the cauliflower. That’s the beautiful way the world used to work.
If you can find them, you might use bottled “sport peppers,” which are used on Chicago style hot dogs. They’re pickled, not terribly hot (less so than fresh serrano), and could emulate the traditional approach that I described.
