Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant and Vegetables)
Caponata is a Sicilian eggplant dish consisting of cooked vegetables with chopped up fried eggplant, celery, sweetened vinegar, and capers with sweet sauce.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 24 min
- Total
- 34 min
- Servings
- As written in source
- Difficulty
- Medium
Timings are approximate — worked out from the method, not measured in a test kitchen.
Ingredients
Quantities are retained as written by the source and do not scale automatically. Tap an ingredient to check it off as you go.
Cooking instructions
Procedure
Strip the filaments from the celery sticks and blanch in lightly salted water for five minutes. Drain and cut the celery into bite-size pieces, sauté them in a little oil, and set aside.
Procedure
Wash and dice the eggplant, strain, and sprinkle liberally with salt, and let sit for several hours to draw out the bitterness. In the meantime, blanch, peel, seed and chop the tomatoes.
Procedure
Once the eggplant has sat, rinse away the salt and pat the pieces dry. Finely slice the onion and sauté them in olive oil; once they have turned translucent, add the capers, pine nuts, olives, and tomatoes. Continue cooking, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the tomatoes are done, about 15 minutes, and then remove the pot from the heat.
Procedure
While the tomatoes are cooking, heat another pan of oil and fry the eggplant, in batches, to prevent lowering of the frying temperature. When the last batch is done, return the tomato pot to the heat and stir in the eggplant together with the previously sautéed celery. Cook for several minutes over low flame, stirring gently, then stir in the vinegar and the sugar; when the vinegar has almost completely evaporated, remove the pot from the fire and let it cool.
Procedure
Serve the caponata cold with a garnish of fresh basil. Caponata keeps for several days in the refrigerator.
Notes, tips, and variations
You can serve this on toast as an appetizer, as a side dish, or as a main dish for a light meal.
Photo: Massimoweb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 · Photo source and licence
Wikibooks contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Adapted; quantities retained as written. · Original source
Read it through first
Skim all 6 steps before you start — it is the difference between cooking and firefighting.
Scale it
Use the quantities listed in the original recipe. Adjust them manually if making a different batch size.
Storage
Cool completely, then keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Reheating
Reheat gently with a splash of water in a covered pan, rather than blasting it, so nothing dries out.
Approximate values per serving. Worked out from the ingredient list — treat them as a guide, not a measurement.
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