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Caponata siciliana is a summer food, very flavorful and easy on eggplant, celery and capers, accompanied by a sweet-sour tomato sauce, scented with notes of herbs. It is a southern Italian cuisine dish, an explosion of flavors, divinely combined and excellent prepared, so you get the most out of the vitamins and minerals in vegetables.
This Sicilian recipe is simple, with few ingredients, but very tasty. Subsequently, the locals have developed the basic recipe, adding green olives, peppers and even seafood (octopus - version of Palermo, or grilled lobster, shrimp and asparagus - the aristocratic Sicilian version) or tuna.
In any version, richer or poorer, Caponata ("capunata") is an excellent Mediterranean food, very appetizing and healthy.
It is recommended as a vegetarian main dish or as a garnish next to a preparation of fish. Many restaurants serve it as an appetizer, in small elegant portions, accompanied by a green salad.
The combination of eggplant with tomato sauce combined with sweet-sour vinegar, capers and green olives is excellent for both lunch (in the hot version, served with ciabatta bread), and evening, served cold as appetizer.
The cuisine is even more intense in flavor as we approach the Equator. Earth's magnetism or sunlight may be differently perceived because they offer a special mood to Mediterranean persons, and any country you choose from this area, you will see that food is a way to experience life, a pleasure of body and soul and imagination has no limits.
So I advise you to fully experience the cuisine of the Sun, and Sicily can be a good start.
Ideal is to have some beautiful and well baked eggplants. I had many sortiments and it was very good.
Prepare basic ingredients:
-eggplant (3-4 pieces)
-2-3 peppers
-2-3 tomatoes
-green olives
-1-2 tablespoons capers
-tomato sauce
-wine vinegar
-1 teaspoon of honey or brown sugar
-1 long stem of celery
-a few cloves of garlic
-1 red onion
-olive-oil
-salt (a little, because the capers and olives are also salty)
-pepper
Place the capers in warm water (to remove the salt from them) and leave them like this until you add in food.
Wash and cut the eggplant into cubes. Do not cut the cubes too small, as they will absorb too much oil and the food will be heavy.
Fry the chopped onion and the sliced celery in a little olive oil. There's no need to get brown, only to become glassy.
Separately, in another pan, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil, add the eggplants and fry them.
When slightly browned, turn off the heat.
Add tomato sauce (one cup) over the onion and celery. Add 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar and brown sugar.
Peel the tomatoes, chop them into pieces and add them in the food. I didn't peel them because I estimated that it takes very little until it's ready and was not necessarily.
Add the diced green pepper. Mix well and leave on medium heat to low, for a few minutes.
Add the ground garlic and pepper. Stir.
Add the stewed eggplants.
After 1-2 minutes, add the sliced green olives and well drained capers (you can chop them if you want).
Let everything simmer for 1-2 minutes and turn off the fire.
Sprinkle freshly chopped Italian basil.
Chop some green leaves of celery and a little parsley and add them to Caponata.
Stir and serve.
If served as starter, the portions are small, decorated with leaves (ideally Basilico).
If served as main course, portions are generous. Sprinkle with olive oil just before serving, to take advantage of all the properties of cold-pressed oil.
Do not underestimate the Sicilian cuisine because it is too simple or without special ingredients. Good taste is quality (and Sicily abounds in fresh and healthy vegetables, baked in the sun's natural light, fragrant and tasty). Learn to use the quality of raw material, to protect with a minimal thermal preparation and you will be healthy and full of vitality as the Italians.
"Chi mangia sano, trova la natura!" ("Who eats healthy, finds nature"-Italian Proverb)
Enjoy your meal!
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