Sunday, February 8, 2009

caponata

Few salads epitomize Sicilian cuisine as much as caponata,
which probably takes its name from an essential ingredient (though not the principal one), capers. Like so much of Sicilian cuisine, caponata comes to us from the Arabs.

Sicilian caponata is a savoury blend of eggplants, tomatoes, balanced with green olives, capers, celery, sugar and vinegar for its characteristic sweet and sour taste

what you need
1 large eggplant
100 ml olive oil
1 clove garlic chopped
1 onion, sliced
45 ml basic tomato sauce
250 grams celery
chopped 25 grams capers drained
12 black olives
30 ml red wine vinegar
10 grams sugar
salt and pepper

what to do
Peel and cube eggplant
Saute in 2/3 of the oil
Remove from pan and add remaining oil and cook garlic and onion till onion is browned
Add tomato sauce and celery and simmer till celery is tender
If necessary, add a little water to the pan to keep mixture moist
Return eggplant to the pan, add capers and olives
Heat vinegar with the sugar and pour over eggplant
Season with salt and pepper and simmer 15 minutes
Serve at room temperature with a slice of lemon to bring out all the flavours.

1 comment:

  1. This looks like it would be so flavorful. I will have to give this a try.

    ReplyDelete