After an invigorating holiday in Puglia with old friends and loads of Italian delicacies and tasty local wine it feels strange to come home to our silent, grey and cold island. I'm still mentally in Italy, so an Italian colourful recipe seems appropriate.
A few years ago I was served my first caponata in a Sicilian restaurant. I made such a fuss about how delicious it was that the chef gave me a glass jar of his caponata to take home with me. I didn't get his recipe and I didn't have a try at making it until this summer. But when we got our first home-grown aubergines and after we were served caponata at a luncheon, I wanted to make my own. There are different versions of this Sicilian caponata; sometimes with raisins in it, but as I am not a friend of raisins in savoury food I left them out. So did unicornsinthekitchen.com , whose recipe I followed.
Ingredients:
500 g Italian eggplants cut into small cubes
0,6 dl olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 dl (or more) green and black olives, chopped
0,6 dl capers
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 F) and line a baking sheet with paper.
2. Place the eggplant pieces on the baking sheet and drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil on the eggplants. Sprinkle some salt and mix using your hands.
3. Roast the eggplants in the oven for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a pan over medium heat.
5. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent.
6. Add in diced tomatoes and red bell peppers to onions and garlic. Cook for about ten minutes until they are cooked.
7. Add in cooked eggplant, chopped olives and capers. Cook for five minutes.
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Top with parsley and serve warm with crusty bread.
This caponata was among the dishes I served at this year's harvest luncheon before we left for our Italian adventure. I will share a few of the other recipes during the weeks to come.
