Caponata alla siciliana

Caponata is a dish based on aubergines that originates in the Italian island of Sicily.

There are many dishes containing aubergines. Many of them have Middle Eastern roots, others come from India and Asia... and some come also from Europe.

No wonder that it's Sicilian

The historical closeness of Sicily to its Moorish past brought a lot of Arab and Mediteranian influences to the island.

The sweet meets the sour

While there are no exotic herbes in this dish, the mixture of sweets (like the raisins) with the sour (vinegar) combines the vegetables in a most amazing way.

Other than the French "ratatouille", which is basically a finer dish, the caponata is supposed to go a family style dinner table. It is an amazing side dish or Antipasto. It goes great with grilled meat or fish as well as chiabbata bread.

This elevates any grill party.

My tip: Try it luke warm…

Ingredients

For 6 persons

80ml olive oil

2 large eggplants (approx. 700 g), cut into 2 cm cubes

200 g celery stalks, cut diagonally into 1 cm wide slices

2 red peppers, cut into 1 cm cubes

2 medium onions, cut into large cubes

1 tsp tomato paste

1 tin (approx. 400g) tomatoes chopped

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

30 g capers

50 g green or black olives, pitted and halved

3 teaspoons sugar

salt and black pepper

50 g raisins (optional)

4 tsp lemon juice

8 tablespoons chopped parsley

8 tablespoons chopped celery leaves (from the celery stalk)

Preparation

Place the aubergine cubes on a baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil and salt and allow to brown at 180° for about 30 minutes.

In a large frying pan (cast iron) let olive oil get hot. Sauté onions, celery and pepperoni, salt and then reduce the heat. Let it simmer on medium heat. Add olives and capers (and raisins) and cook at the same time. After a few minutes, add the tomato paste, the canned tomatoes and half of the parsley and celery herb and continue cooking for at least 25 minutes until the water from the tomatoes has almost been absorbed. In between add vinegar, sugar and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Now add the aubergine cubes, which have cooled down a little, and mix in. Add the rest of the parsley and celery herb and season again.